The medical device industry in the United States has developed very well. Almost all six categories of devices (surgical and conventional instruments, infection control devices, cardiovascular devices, plastic surgery devices, household health care devices and other devices) are produced locally. The huge capacity determines that the American medical device industry must take the road of export-oriented development, looking for overseas markets to release abundant production capacity.
Data show that 18 developed countries and regions are among the top 20 overseas markets for medical devices exported by the United States in the past three years. According to relevant statistics, the United States exported medical devices to 57 countries and regions last year. These 20 countries and regions accounted for 90% of the total value of medical devices exported by the United States in the whole year, while the remaining 37 countries accounted for only 10%.
How does the US medical device industry successfully penetrate into the markets of many developed countries and regions? According to a report issued by the American Medical Devices Industry Association, the export strategy of American medical device products can be summarized as follows.
First, the National Federation of Medical Device Manufacturers of the United States attaches great importance to cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO) and strengthens communication with FDA. The American Medical Devices Industry Association regularly sends staff to attend various international medical or epidemiological seminars hosted by WHO in order to keep abreast of the epidemic situation and national medical expenditure in WHO member countries, and to study and find business opportunities.
Secondly, the Office of the United States Trade Representative is also one of the important channels for the medical device industry association to collect information. This office assigns trade representatives to U.S. embassies abroad in order to keep abreast of medical and health developments and other important information (such as procurement of medicines or large medical devices, etc.).
Thirdly, the American Medical Devices Industry Association has established a liaison agency in Washington, D.C., to communicate pressing issues with senior government officials at any time. The name of this organization is "International Business Monitoring Office". It can be seen that American medical device manufacturers attach great importance to product export intelligence and access to government policy support.
Fourthly, exporters of medical devices in the United States attach great importance to "subdividing the export market", that is, exporting products according to the specific needs of the exporting countries, so that they can enter the other market smoothly. For example, for the vast majority of countries and regions, diagnostic equipment, diagnostic equipment and therapeutic devices are daily necessities of the medical industry, and these products are just the strong points of large-scale equipment manufacturers in the United States. According to American media reports, from large-scale electronic imaging diagnostic equipment such as CT, MRI, PET to basic market products such as tongue depressor, electronic thermometer, cardiac pacemaker, vascular stent and implantable insulin pump, the United States can produce medical devices. Therefore, the American Medical Devices Industry Association's "market segmentation" strategy is very effective.
Fifth, strengthen the after-sales service of medical equipment products. There are correction, maintenance, maintenance, operator training and other service items in the use of medical devices, especially some high-performance precision equipment. In the past few decades, the medical device industry in the United States has established a strong after-sales service team composed of senior technical experts, engineers and professional maintainers. Although products do not charge maintenance fees during the warranty period, important products such as spare parts still need to be charged (some key spare parts are expensive), so after-sales service for medical devices is also a "good business" for savvy American manufacturers. According to American media reports, the average annual salary of all employees in the medical device manufacturing industry in the United States was between 60,000 and 70,000 US dollars between 2015 and 2018, while the annual salary of after-sales service personnel engaged in maintenance was as high as 80,000 to 90,000 US dollars (** even more than 100,000 US dollars).
Recently, an annual report released by the Federation of American Medical Device Manufacturers disclosed that in 2018, the amount of surgical instruments/medical devices exported by the United States accounted for 27%-28% of the total amount of medical devices exported by the country, and the proportion of low-tech products was not low. It can be seen that there is still a huge demand for some low-tech medical devices in the international market. This shows that American manufacturers do not rely entirely on the export of high-tech medical devices to make profits. Ordinary surgical devices are also a large class of export products.
In recent years, there is also a trend that can not be ignored in the export of medical devices industry in the United States. New medical dressing products have become one of the products with rapid growth in export volume. These products include foam dressing, sodium alginate dressing, polysaccharide (such as chitosan) film dressing, nano anionic antibacterial dressing and high molecular medical dressing with good biocompatibility. It is understood that these new products are urgently needed by the international medical industry.
