El Lae, writing for Fierce Pharma Asia, predicts that China’s market for medical devices will pass Japan’s this year, making its market second only to the United States. Access China Management Consulting wrote that China’s market would pass the $55 billion mark this year, a number that is almost double what it was just two years ago.
Here Comes the Dragon: China Consumes $55 Billion in Devices
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According to Lae, China’s medical device market began to grow in the 2000’s. Prior to that time, from 1990 on, the healthcare market had been growing at the rate of 16% a year. Lae writes that about half of the market relies on imports, dominated by MRI and CAT scan machines.
The aging of China’s population, a fifth of the world’s, has stimulated demand for high tech devices. The country’s leaders are working to promote local medical device manufacturers who could supply China’s rapidly growing network of hospitals. Concerns have grown over costs of imports and the competition with domestic producers over these high cost devices.
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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