The Future (Ours) is in China for Medtech

The importance of China in the global economy became apparent this week, with the ups and downs of its economic state tripping the hair trigger that financial markets have for the huge nation’s growth market.

The importance of China in the global economy became apparent this week, with the ups and downs of its economic state tripping the hair trigger that financial markets have for the huge nation’s growth market.

But in hard terms, what does that mean? As an example, look at spine surgery technology and compare the forecasted growth in sales in China not against the much lower U.S. market but against other high-growth Asia-Pacific markets such as India and Japan. Below is the balance of spine surgery technology sales (encompassing cervical fusion, thoracolumbar implants, minimally invasive spinal fusion, interbody fusion, and orthobiologics) for 2014 and forecasted for 2021 for China, India, and Japan.

Spine Surgery Sales by Country, 2014 & 2021

Source: MedMarket Diligence, LLC; Report #M540

The size of the pie slices should say enough, knowing what countries we are talking about, but in hard numbers, Japan’s annual sales in 2021 will be $243 million higher than they were in 2014, but China’s 2021 spine surgery sales will be $536 million higher than in 2014.

The overall size and growth in China’s medtech market, including spine surgery, demands a business strategy to gain sales there, since no other market worldwide is expected to drive so much new revenue.