Singapore-Listed UltraGreen.ai Faces New US Competition as Rival ICG Dye Wins FDA Approval
Source: The Business Times
Singapore's fast-rising surgical imaging company is about to face its first real competitive test. UltraGreen.ai, the homegrown medical device maker that grabbed headlines with a blockbuster SGX listing last month, has enjoyed a near-monopoly position in the US market for its indocyanine green (ICG) dye — a.
Singapore's fast-rising surgical imaging company is about to face its first real competitive test. UltraGreen.ai, the homegrown medical device maker that grabbed headlines with a blockbuster SGX listing last month, has enjoyed a near-monopoly position in the US market for its indocyanine green (ICG) dye — a fluorescent agent surgeons use to see vessels and tissues in real time. That dominance, built in large part on a rival's collapse, now looks set to erode as a new competitor clears regulatory hurdles.
UltraGreen.ai will soon face competition in the US, its largest revenue market, after pharmaceutical firm Zydus Lifesciences secured approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for its own ICG dye. The Americas accounted for 75 per cent of the company's revenue — roughly US$65.4 million of its US$87.2 million total in the first half of 2026. Independent analyst Jamal Aliyev put the company's US ICG market share at 83 per cent, a position built largely because the only other approved producer, Akorn Pharma, filed for bankruptcy in February 2023. That vacuum let UltraGreen.ai raise prices by 60 per cent in 2023, 30 per cent in 2024 and 22 per cent in 2025, pushing the average US selling price to about US$158 per vial.
The competitive window is widening. Zydus already has distribution infrastructure in place across the United States, making it a credible threat, and Provepharm, a medical dye specialist, also has an ICG product winding through the FDA approval process. Analysts flagged that generic entry typically drags drug prices down by a median 18 per cent while holding overall demand — a pattern that would pressure UltraGreen.ai's pricing power even as volumes could rise. The company has a buffer in gross margins that expand from 85 per cent in FY2025 to 87 per cent in H1 2026, giving it room to compete on price before margins take a real hit.
The 180-day Competitive Generic Therapy exclusivity Zydus secured limits UltraGreen.ai to facing one generic competitor at a time rather than several at once, offering a modest runway. The company said it will keep competing on its market position, product quality, clinical support and global reach, and CEO Ravinder Sajwan has guided for double-digit revenue growth in FY2026 as ICG adoption spreads, with regulatory approvals of its Verdye brand now extending to 40 countries.
Why it matters for Singapore: UltraGreen.ai is one of Singapore's highest-profile homegrown AI-adjacent medtech stories — a company whose blockbuster SGX listing minted a family fortune and put the Lion City on the map in surgical intelligence. How it navigates its first real competitive squeeze will be a telling signal for Singapore's ambitions to build deep-tech champions that can take on global incumbents. If it holds pricing and share against better-resourced US rivals, it validates the model of building category leaders here; if the margin erodes, it is a reminder that scale and a single-market moat are fragile without sustained diversification.
