Promoting Chinese medical devices

Founded in Shenzhen in 1991, Mindray Medical established an office in the US in 2004 and did the same in the United Kingdom two years later. Its network of subsidiaries and representative offices has since been expanded into about 20 countries and regions, including France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain.

A notable achievement for Mindray in the UK is successfully entering the procurement system of the country's national healthcare system, which is one of the most rigorous in the world.

Lepu Medical Technology spent $6.6 million purchasing a 70 percent share in ComEd, a Netherlands sales agency of medical devices used to treat cardiovascular diseases, at the end of 2011.

Beijing-based Lepu's devices are for coronary artery intervention and anesthesia delivery. ComEd is a middle-sized agency with annual sales of nearly 8 million euros ($10.39 million) in 2010. Its compound annual growth rate was 28.3 percent between 2005 and 2010.

"Lepu is eyeing the stable and fast growth of the agency and its rich resources in terms of administration and professionals, its sound relationship with many key hospitals and top doctors," said Hua, adding that in the medical device market, letting the practitioners, or people who use the devices, know about what is available is very important because they can influence the decision of purchasers.

Su Lei, an account manager at Mindray UK, said the UK medical market's lack of awareness of the company as a brand is a challenge it still faces.

"Our brand name is very well known by hospitals' procurement teams but far less known by doctors and nurses and the end-consumers," Su said. He explained that brand awareness is an important factor determining whether a medical equipment company can win a new contract because hospitals would only buy equipment from companies the doctors and nurses are happy to use.

'Doctors and nurses are actually very conservative people and they do not like to try new brands that they do not know," said Su. Western doctors have been using products made by Western brands such as Philips Healthcare and GE Healthcare for a long time so they know how they work, which makes it hard for new market entrants such as Mindray to break into them.

Paola Ramos, 27, who lives in London but is originally from Spain, said she does not know about any Chinese medical companies, including medical device producers, but will be happy to use them if they pass European Union standards.

Ramos used "good, accurate and effective" to describe her impression of Chinese medical products, although she has never tried one.

Mindray is focusing on building brand awareness in the West but considers it challenging. "Our competitors, such as Philips Healthcare and GE Healthcare, are divisions of conglomerates that sell many consumer goods so they are widely known," said Su.