The medical device market has an estimated global worth of over $300 billion. Back in 2007, China made up only 20% of that market share, however for the past several years, the country has enjoyed double digit growth at unprecedented rates.
Liu Daozhi, who owns a leading medical device manufacturing firm in China said, “By 2020, China will become the second largest manufacturer of medical devices in the world.”
A growing global trend has placed an increasing premium on low-cost manufacturing options for medical devices and this has in part been responsible, and will continue to be play a role in China’s accelerated growth in the coming years.
Another reason for the increased growth in China’s medical device manufacturing sector has to do with recent healthcare reform programs, in which a campaign has been undertaken to replace tens of thousands of older medical devices in hospitals and healthcare centers across the country. Many of these devices haven’t been replaced since the 1970’s, opening up a huge window for growth in this industry. This has also helped to create significant demand for new higher quality products, which domestic manufacturers are eager to fulfill.
If partnerships by some of the global leaders in medical device manufacturing are any indication of the quality that China brings to the table, joint ventures with both Siemens and GE have solidified China’s role in helping to research and develop cutting edge medical device technology and products. These partnerships were only formed within the last decade, and have greatly contributed to China’s growing dominance in the medical device market.
While only ten years ago, China enjoyed dominance in the low- to mid-tier medical device market, the country has been taking all of the steps in the right direction in order to expand into the high-tier market as well.
