Impact on Devices

China’s medical product market has benefited greatly from this reform. Although the lower-tier hospitals are not the traditional segments for international companies and their products, the demand from this segment has expanded the entire market. China is on route to becoming the third largest medical device market, surpassing Japan, in two or three years. Most medical companies have posted exceptional revenue growth in 2009. Whitney Research Inc., which specializes in market research of the Chinese in-vitro diagnostic (IVD) market, estimated that IVD companies grew an average 25 to 30 percent in 2009 compared to the prior year. Basel, Switzerland-based diagnostic giant Roche posted 50 percent growth in 2009 in China, an industry source told the author.