Opening China's closed doors
September 13, 2010
By Joe Shrawder
This report originally appeared in the August 2010 issue of DOTmed Business News
The U.S. Department of Commerce's catalog of global trade practices for used medical equipment sums up China's import rules with a single, melancholy sentence: "Refurbished medical devices are not allowed into China."
It wasn't always this way. Until 1998, there were few controls on used medical goods coming into China. But the Chinese still remember, 12 years later, that there were a number of unscrupulous players in our industry. Either directly or through intermediaries, people were selling and importing used medical devices into China that were of poor or shoddy quality - sometimes they didn't work at all.
After a number of consumer complaints, China adopted the ban, and has been quite clear that it doesn't want any such goods coming in.
But while there's no immediate Nixon-in-China moment to thaw the frigid relationship between China and U.S. medical device refurbishers, there are steps businesses can take to make a relaxation of the ban more likely: one of which is to create space for a tough, completely voluntary industry standard that will help China and other countries wary of bringing in used equipment warm up to imports.
China's health care investment
China is undergoing continuous evolution of their policy and priority positions on health care. We've seen over the last two or three years significant commitment to investment in rural health care - health care for the non-urban, non-wealthy population, below the burgeoning middle class. According to recent reports, China's 859-billion-yuan health care stimulus plan (about $127 billion) will fuel a construction boom. China expects to build about 30,000 new clinics and 2,000 county-level hospitals over the next decade.
China will be looking for effective equipment to fill those clinics, and it will also be looking for bargains. Pretty soon, the country will decide it needs heavy private sector participation in order to remake the nation's health care.
Now, when they come to that conclusion, they have three options: one is to encourage the support of multinational companies like GE, Siemens or Philips to more aggressively develop the right new value product at the right prices. A second option is to support or favor domestic manufacturers who already have a low-cost position relative to the multinationals. Generally, that's coming with some compromises in safety, reliability, user interface, quality and overall desirability as well as functionality.
This report originally appeared in the August 2010 issue of DOTmed Business News
The U.S. Department of Commerce's catalog of global trade practices for used medical equipment sums up China's import rules with a single, melancholy sentence: "Refurbished medical devices are not allowed into China."
It wasn't always this way. Until 1998, there were few controls on used medical goods coming into China. But the Chinese still remember, 12 years later, that there were a number of unscrupulous players in our industry. Either directly or through intermediaries, people were selling and importing used medical devices into China that were of poor or shoddy quality - sometimes they didn't work at all.
After a number of consumer complaints, China adopted the ban, and has been quite clear that it doesn't want any such goods coming in.
But while there's no immediate Nixon-in-China moment to thaw the frigid relationship between China and U.S. medical device refurbishers, there are steps businesses can take to make a relaxation of the ban more likely: one of which is to create space for a tough, completely voluntary industry standard that will help China and other countries wary of bringing in used equipment warm up to imports.
China's health care investment
China is undergoing continuous evolution of their policy and priority positions on health care. We've seen over the last two or three years significant commitment to investment in rural health care - health care for the non-urban, non-wealthy population, below the burgeoning middle class. According to recent reports, China's 859-billion-yuan health care stimulus plan (about $127 billion) will fuel a construction boom. China expects to build about 30,000 new clinics and 2,000 county-level hospitals over the next decade.
China will be looking for effective equipment to fill those clinics, and it will also be looking for bargains. Pretty soon, the country will decide it needs heavy private sector participation in order to remake the nation's health care.
Now, when they come to that conclusion, they have three options: one is to encourage the support of multinational companies like GE, Siemens or Philips to more aggressively develop the right new value product at the right prices. A second option is to support or favor domestic manufacturers who already have a low-cost position relative to the multinationals. Generally, that's coming with some compromises in safety, reliability, user interface, quality and overall desirability as well as functionality.
