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Philips lines up $54m investment

By Wang Hongyi (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-18 07:58

Electronics company Royal Philips Electronics yesterday said it would invest $54 million to set up an Industrial Campus for imaging systems in China over the next five years, to cash in on the nation's healthcare reforms.

Located in the Suzhou Industrial Park, Jiangsu province and covering 62,000 sq m, the Industrial Campus for imaging systems will have the integrated facilities of R&D, manufacturing, assembly and sourcing in one site.

The campus mainly produces intermediates for the Chinese market and is adapted to the requirements of local hospitals. It will produce 64-slice CT and 1.5T MR machines, which are mainstream imaging systems equipment in most of China's provincial and city level hospitals, as well as X-Ray equipment for mid-sized hospitals.

"The move will perfect the current healthcare product lines, and further enhance our healthcare presence in the country," said Steve Rusckowski, executive vice-president and chief executive officer of Philips Healthcare.

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Besides the campus, Philips Healthcare has two other sites nationwide that integrate the facilities of R&D and manufacturing, the joint venture with Neusoft and the recently acquired company Shenzhen Goldway. The two sites focus on patient monitoring and home healthcare business respectively.

"The Industrial Campus in Suzhou, together with the other two sites, will make us better positioned to help improve the accessibility and affordability of healthcare services in China with a complete product portfolio that serves both the market requirements for the value segment as well as more advanced specialized applications," Rusckowski said.

Earlier this year, the government said it would invest 850 billion yuan over the next three years to revamp the country's healthcare system. Nearly one-third of the funds would be used to establish new hospitals or medical service centers, and upgrade existing healthcare facilities.

According to research firm Frost & Sullivan, China's medical equipment market revenue touched 83 billion yuan last year, accounting for one-eighth of the country's total healthcare industry.

Analysts said the rapid growth of the Chinese healthcare industry and the ongoing medical reform are expected to create huge demand for medical equipment such as X-ray machines, CT scanners and ultrasound scanners.

Healthcare business accounted for nearly 29 percent of Philips' overall sales last year and was the second largest contributor to sales.