Western Strategies in Asia Due to the large increase in cancer in Asia, demand for quality cancer

Western Strategies in Asia

Due to the large increase in cancer in Asia, demand for quality cancer treatments also has risen dramatically. Many Western firms are looking to expand their products into the Asian markets and have seen tremendous growth in their Asian sales. The lower dollar also has helped fuel medical device exports.

Large medical technology companies—GE Healthcare, for example—have taken dramatic steps to enter the Chinese market. In 2011, GE began a partnership with Concord Medical Services Holdings Ltd, a Beijing-based company with a network of radiation therapy and diagnostic imaging centers throughout China. Last year, the company opened a research and development facility for X-ray technology in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province. GE also plans to move its X-ray unit headquarters from the United States to Beijing, to better serve the Chinese market. However, the company still plans to keep its 120 employees in Wisconsin, where the division currently is based. GE Healthcare wants to expand its X-ray business into rural and smaller Chinese cities where the highest future growth is projected. For that purpose, GE has been increasing its number of Chinese sales and service offices. The company also actively has been releasing new, lower-cost products tailored to the Chinese market, such as a scaled-down computed tomography (CT) scanner called Brivo CT in 2010, and an X-ray device called Linglong in 2009.

Another example of a Western company succeeding in China is Elekta, which has been expanding into the Korean radiation therapy market. At the end of 2010, Elekta reported that 16 of the company’s Gamma Knife systems were installed across South Korea. To satisfy growing demand for cancer treatment, Elekta opened its seventh Asia-Pacific office at the end of 2010 near Seoul, Korea. The company also is partnering with two of the top medical centers in the country. One of the first radiotherapy treatments performed as a result of this partnership was for a patient diagnosed with nasopharyngeal (nose) carcinoma.

A third example is Varian Medical Systems, which in 2011 received approval from the Chinese State Food and Drug Administration to market its TrueBeam product—an image-guided radiation therapy system. The first system in China was installed in July at Shantou University Medical College’s cancer treatment center. The system also was granted approval in Japan this year.