Viking Tech’s Medical RFID Business Reaches 33% of Revenue as Sponge Customer Completes Conversion

Preface

Viking Tech (韋僑, 6417-TW) reported that medical applications accounted for 33% of revenue during the first three quarters of 2026, up 3 percentage points from 30% in 2025. One contributor was a customer that makes RFID-enabled surgical sponges: by the end of 2026, it planned to replace barcode management for all of its sponges with RFID. The change addresses a practical clinical risk—sponges left inside patients after surgery can lead to medical disputes and insurance claims—while also supporting the customer’s effort to compete in a market dominated by other suppliers. This article reviews the conversion, the certification requirements for medical applications, projects involving other medical supplies and pharmaceuticals, and the company’s reported revenue and margin trends. The central issue is whether RFID can combine traceability and patient-safety benefits with commercial value as adoption expands.

Lazy bag

Medical applications generated 33% of Viking Tech’s revenue in the first three quarters of 2026, compared with 30% in 2025. A surgical sponge customer planned to complete its barcode-to-RFID conversion by the end of 2026, enabling scans before and after procedures to help verify sponge counts. Viking Tech says medical-device certification can take about 5 years for invasive products and about 3 years for non-invasive products. Other projects include eye-care medicines, knee-joint products, arthroscopy supplies, and injection syringes. RFID development in healthcare remains at an early stage, and certification timelines are a key factor in future expansion.

Main Body

Medical growth and the surgical sponge conversion

Viking Tech said medical applications represented 33% of revenue in the first three quarters of 2026, compared with 30% in 2025. The increase of 3 percentage points coincided with expansion across medical, industrial, and consumer projects. A significant example is a customer that produces surgical sponges used to absorb blood during procedures. The customer had managed its sponges with barcodes and planned to move all of them to RFID by the end of 2026. Viking Tech supplies the RFID labels attached to those sponges.

The rationale for RFID includes tracking and patient safety. If a surgical sponge remains inside a patient after an operation, the result can be a serious medical incident, a dispute, and an insurance claim. With RFID tags, clinical staff can scan the sponges before and after a procedure and compare the counts. The process is intended to reduce the risk of a sponge being unintentionally left inside the patient. Viking Tech said hospitals and insurers are willing to pay for the related system. The company summarized the clinical and legal concern by saying that a doctor should not face imprisonment because a sponge was accidentally left inside a patient during surgery.

The conversion also has a competitive dimension. Viking Tech said its customer holds about 6% of the U.S. surgical blood-absorbing sponge market, while competitors control the remaining 94%. Johnson & Johnson (嬌生) is among the larger competitors. The customer’s adoption of RFID is part of its approach to competing for a greater share of that market. Viking Tech described the strategy as an effort to go after the 94% held by other suppliers. The RFID label is therefore both a traceability component and part of the customer’s product proposition.

Certification creates a long-term supplier relationship

Medical applications have regulatory and validation requirements that can make commercialization lengthy. Viking Tech said it may take about 5 years for an invasive medical device and about 3 years for a non-invasive product to obtain certification with a customer. The company’s view is that once the relevant certification has been secured, the business relationship becomes much more established. This timing means that medical revenue growth can depend not only on customer interest or product development, but also on the completion of qualification and approval processes.

The surgical sponge conversion took several years. Its completion by the end of 2026 represents the validation of RFID in that particular application and customer workflow. However, it does not mean every medical product can adopt the same system without further work. Each application has its own materials, design constraints, production methods, and validation needs. As a result, the sponge project provides a reference point for further development, while additional customers and product categories still require their own progress through testing and certification.

Extending RFID to other medical supplies

Viking Tech said it is working on projects involving eye-care medicines, knee-joint products, and arthroscopy supplies. These projects illustrate the range of medical consumables for which product identification and tracking may be useful. Yet the technical demands can differ substantially. The company identified injection syringes as the most difficult application among the projects discussed. For this use, the antenna must be embedded during injection molding, and even the antenna end requires a specialized design.

Embedding RFID components in small or tightly constrained medical products calls for miniaturization. Viking Tech said it has miniaturized RFID so that it can be incorporated into consumables such as these. The design challenge is not limited to making a tag smaller: the component also needs to fit the product’s manufacturing process and intended use. In the syringe example, embedding the antenna during molding makes the design and production requirements especially demanding. Such work helps explain why a promising application may still be in development or certification rather than already contributing material revenue.

Pharmaceutical traceability and development timelines

Pharmaceutical applications may take longer to develop than medical consumables. Viking Tech referred to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA), which requires an interoperable electronic system for pharmaceutical traceability. In response to this area of work, the company said it is cooperating with GS1, the organization that establishes global standards for product identification, and with a German pharmaceutical company on applying labels at the source.

Viking Tech said it expects pharmaceutical development to take more time. This reflects the need to coordinate product identification, interoperable data systems, manufacturing, and supply-chain processes. Traceability involves more than attaching a label: information must be represented in a way that can be used across relevant systems and supply-chain participants. The company’s work with GS1 and a pharmaceutical manufacturer illustrates an approach that begins at the source of production, while the eventual pace of adoption remains subject to project execution and applicable requirements.

Market opportunity and competitive context

Viking Tech described RFID adoption in healthcare as being at only 5% to 10% of its development. The company cited annual operational value already realized of 10 億至 30 億美元 and potential future annual benefits of 130 億至 380 億美元. These figures were presented as an indication of the scale of value associated with healthcare RFID, rather than as a forecast of Viking Tech’s own revenue. The company also said that the competitive field includes two global players: U.S. label and packaging-materials company Avery Dennison and CCL. It argued that even obtaining one-tenth of the opportunity would represent substantial value.

The potential described by the company should be distinguished from realized performance. The stated development level of 5% to 10% suggests that broader application of RFID remains limited, while the cited benefit ranges refer to the market’s operational value and potential. Capturing part of that opportunity would depend on successful qualification, customer adoption, manufacturing capability, and competition with established suppliers. The surgical sponge example provides evidence of a specific customer conversion, but other use cases—including syringes and pharmaceuticals—are at different stages.

Revenue and gross-margin trends

Viking Tech attributed 22.08% year-over-year revenue growth in the first three quarters to the simultaneous expansion of projects in medical, industrial, and consumer applications. The company’s reported financial data show revenue of 5.06 億元 in the second quarter of 2026 and 5.10 億元 in the third quarter of 2026. It said quarterly revenue had reached a new high for four consecutive quarters beginning in the fourth quarter of 2025. Revenue for the first three quarters totaled 14.44 億元.

Gross margin also increased. Viking Tech said the margin rose from 29.35% in the third quarter of 2025 to above 34%. According to the company’s industry database figures, quarterly revenue increased from 4.05 億元 in the third quarter of 2025 to 5.10 億元 in the third quarter of 2026. Over the same period, gross margin moved from 29.35% to 34.38%. The two measures therefore increased together across the stated comparison period. The source identifies the data as current through the third quarter of 2026 and attributes them to the Uanalysis industry database.

The rise in medical applications’ share of revenue by 3 percentage points was partly associated with the customer’s broad replacement of barcode management with RFID. At the same time, the company linked overall growth to projects across multiple application areas, rather than to the sponge customer alone. This distinction matters when interpreting the figures: the medical mix shift and the company-wide revenue increase are related developments, but the reported growth reflects a wider set of projects.

What remains to be demonstrated

The completed sponge conversion validates one RFID use case, but further medical expansion depends on additional customer projects and approvals. More technically demanding products, such as injection syringes, still require development and certification. Pharmaceutical traceability projects face their own implementation requirements and are expected by the company to take longer. Consequently, the medical share of revenue may continue to change as projects advance, but the timing and scale of that change depend on certifications and customer adoption.

Overall, Viking Tech’s account combines a concrete example of RFID replacing barcodes with a broader view of possible healthcare and pharmaceutical applications. The sponge project demonstrates how scanning can support count verification and reduce the risk of retained surgical items, while also giving the customer a competitive tool. The company’s reported 33% medical revenue share and improving financial indicators provide context for its expansion, but the longer certification cycles and early adoption level indicate that future growth will require continued execution across several distinct applications.

Key Insights Table