ARTICLE SUMMARY:
Current medtech trends in China, including important regulatory shifts, have re-opened the country to innovation, in the view of this long-time expert on Israeli/Chinese device partnerships. By Yuval Binur.
For years pre-Covid, China demonstrated that it was a fast-growing market for advanced medical technologies. Leading physicians attended global conferences and were influential in importing the latest Western technologies to China. Most of the large multinational corporations established facilities in China, created joint ventures with domestic companies, and sourced production capacity. The attraction of a 1.47 billion potential patient market and increased demand for better healthcare, together with the establishment of a strong, wealthy middle class, drove the market growth. China sales became an important component in every Corporate America annual sales projection. Global venture capital funds were fed by Chinese money, and several large US venture firms opened offices in Shanghai and Beijing. The stock markets in Hong Kong and China provided lucrative liquidity options for innovative companies, domestic and foreign. Then Covid came and brought with it substantial changes.
