Yes, China is spending $123 billion over the next 3 years to build rural healthcare facilities. Yes, those facilities will need to be stocked with medical devices and supplies. Yes, there is an enormous push from nearly every device manufacturer to sell into or offshore manufacturing to China. And, yes, there is an enormous amount of anxiety in industry about what happens to IP once technical files are opened to SFDA and onerous requirements for in-China testing are satisfied…and with good reason.
Although on-the-record comments are rare, many say (off the record) that IP associated with devices sold into China is as good as gone. Now, there is a concrete example of how this dynamic plays out over time. You can read about it in the Wall Street Journal - the link is here.
The similarities between the aerospace and medical device industry have been remarked many times – there is a significant movement of engineering and management talent between the two industrys. The translation quality metric that Crimson uses (SAE J2450) originally came from aerospace. There’s a lot that US manufacturers can learn from Russia’s experience with China – customers today will definitely become competitiors tomorrow.
