Foreign-funded medical machinery borrowed and merged into new markets

With the advancement of the new medical reform, this year, the state regards grass-roots hospitals as the focus of investment, and the central and western regions are the top priorities. Under the guidance of policies, the potential of the central and western regions and grass-roots markets has been discovered and taken by many foreign companies.

“There is an innovation evaluation index within the company—the new product vitality index. The goal of the Medical Products Division is to strive for 40%.” A few days ago, in the 7th Shanghai International Infection Control Forum, 3M China Limited Medical Products Division Manager Wu Liang said.

3M is known for its sterilization products, hospital hand-washing solutions, and respiratory protection systems. In fact, it has considerable strength in the areas of drug delivery systems, dentistry, and orthodontics.

According to 3M's 2010 annual report, its revenue was 26.7 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 22.6%, and medical products division sales revenue was 4.5 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 5.2%. It was the second largest business division and the highest profitability division.

According to Wu Liang, in China, the Medical Products Division hopes to achieve a 2 to 3 times GDP growth rate. To achieve this goal, a multi-pronged approach is needed, including M&A, R&D localization, and expansion into the Midwest market.

M & A Enters New Markets 3M's Chairman and CEO George Barkley once revealed during his visit to China last year that 3M would spend $1 billion to $1.5 billion each year on mergers and acquisitions. This figure represents about 2% to 4% of sales.

George Barkley believes that mergers and acquisitions is an important means to enter the blank technology field and rapidly increase production capacity. It can help to achieve the scale expansion of enterprises, and at the same time, want to quickly enter a broad market like China, through the acquisition of local brands. It is a natural way to come in.

This tactic has been confirmed in China. According to Wu Liang, at the end of last year, 3M acquired US-based Orthodontics equipment manufacturer Hangzhou Aojie Medical Equipment Co., Ltd. with US$13 million at the end of last year to obtain its corresponding intellectual property rights, and established 3M-Unitek's Asian R&D in Hangzhou. center. In addition to studying orthodontic products suitable for Asian populations, the company will further expand its production scale based on Aojie's production base. It is reported that Aojie mainly provides low-end products, which are complementary to 3M, while also making up for 3M's product line in China.

Last year, 3M also acquired a company providing patient insulation systems in the United States. Patient warming is closely related to reducing nosocomial infections. According to Wu Liang, such products have already submitted registration applications to the SFDA. If successful, they may be introduced into the Chinese market by the end of this year.

Another very 3M market is an inhaled drug delivery system. At present, most Chinese metered-dose inhalers use Freon as a propellant, and China has promised to completely ban the use of Freon in a short period of time. Wu Liang said that the introduction of non-Freon-based metered dose inhalers is a current focus.

"Introducing new products and mergers and acquisitions will help improve the new product vitality index of the medical division," said Wu Liang, the index refers to the percentage of research and development products in the past five years in total sales of the year, 3M China averaged 38%, medical services The impact of the registration approval factor is currently lower than this figure. Our goal is to reach 30% to 40% after 5 years.

With the advancement of the new medical reform, this year, the state regards grass-roots hospitals as the focus of investment, and the central and western regions are the top priorities. Under the guidance of policies, the potential of the central and western regions and grass-roots markets has been discovered and taken by many foreign companies.

3M is no exception. At the 7th Shanghai International Infection Control Forum, 3M and the Chinese Medical Association launched the “Supporting 100-person Training Program for Western Sensation Control”.

Wu Liang revealed that after inspecting some hospitals in the western region, it was discovered that there are indeed some concepts and operations in the central and western regions that are not standardized. The hospital's operating practices have much room for improvement. For enterprises, there is also a large market space. “The volume of business in the central and western regions is not large at present, but the growth is very fast. We should closely track and explore and serve the Midwest market.”

At the same time, Wu Liang also stated that according to some operating habits of China, 3M will conduct localized R&D and production. “The more important significance of local production is that it can shorten the time needed to find products, and the headquarters also hopes to put production capacity in The area of ​​growth."