A CHINESE market for medical technology used to be on the long list of lofty goals for device makers.
NOW med-tech firms are seeing double-digit growth as they partner with Chinese manufacturers, purchase Chinese companies, and race to educate and woo Chinese doctors and patients eager to tap the latest technology.
A growing Chinese middle class and increasing investment in health care by the Chinese government are making such devices as pacemakers, defibrillators, insulin pumps and spine products accessible to hundreds of millions of new patients. More-familiar factors play a role, too, as the nation falls prey to such chronic ailments as heart disease and diabetes, meaning even more customers will lean on technology from device makers to prolong and improve their lives. The burgeoning Chinese middle class is estimated to number more than 400 million people – larger than the entire population of the United States. That middle class is demanding better access to health care, and the Chinese government has responded by pledging to spend $A135.24 million over the next three years, promising that all citizens will have access to basic health care by 2020. International companies are pumping money into the market. In 2011, Boston Scientific announced a five-year, $US150 million investment in China, including a new local manufacturing facility. Its Institute for Advancing Science offers Chinese doctors programs in cardiology, cardiac rhythm management, electrophysiology, endoscopy, peripheral interventions, urology and women’s health. Also in 2011, St Jude Medical opened its Advanced Technology Centre Asia Pacific in Beijing. The centre is expected to train up to 2,000 doctors each year. Karen Eggleston, director of the Asia Health Policy Program at Stanford University, said a multifaceted business strategy in China – from partnerships to training to facilities to outright purchases – is a solid approach. “It is common among the wiser firms, for people who are learning the market and trying to figure out which strategies work better,” she said. All that growth isn’t expected to slow down. “The medical technology market in China has grown rapidly – consistently by double digits for the past decade or so – and it is projected to continue to do so,” said Ralph Ives, executive vice president for global strategy and analysis at the Advanced Medical Technology Association, testifying recently to a US-China trade commission in Washington. “The medical technology market in 2006 was about one-third the size of today’s market in China, and it could expand by 40 per cent over the next three years.”