China Become the Second Largest Medical Equipment Market

The medical electronics market has always remained a steady source of revenue growth in semiconductors and is expected to reach nearly $4.1 billion in global revenue for the FY 2012. Over the next few years sales will accelerate at a steady rate of 9 percent on average thanks to rapidly aging populations and a greater emphasis on preventative care which will spur demand for even smarter and more sophisticated medical devices, especially those of the home and implantable varieties.

In 2012, although the weaker economic conditions and market saturation has reduced demand in mature healthcare markets such as the U.S. and EU, many suppliers are have begun to explore new markets, especially in the Asia Pacific region, which is slated to play a much bigger role in 2013.

China, in particular, is projected to exceed Japan within the next 7 years, becoming the second largest medical electronics equipment market, according to the survey report from PharmaLive consulting firm. With the continuous urbanization process and the arrival of aging in China, as well as the continual the deepening of the medical and health system reform, China’s medical electronics equipment industry will usher in many new opportunities. By 2015, the medical device industry in China will reach about CNY 190 billion in sales volume.

It is understood, among the current medical instruments and equipments owned by 175,000 health institutions in China, about 15% are the produced before or after 1970s and 60% are products in the mid-1980s, so the need of replacement for medical devices will stimulate Chinese medical devices segment to see rapid growth in the next few years. The analysts from PharamaLive predict, in the coming years, the compound growth rate of Chinese medical devices market will remain 20%-30%. As of 2050, China will account for 25% market shares in the world’s medical device market.

Undoubted, the government support contributes a lot to the high-speed development of medical devices. It is reported China’s government recently implemented a series of policies as part of its Five-Year Plan designed to benefit the medical devices industry. Specifically, China’s Ministry of Health plans to increase the country’s overall spending on healthcare to represent as much as 7 percent of China’s GDP or an estimated $63.5 billion by the year 2020.