Emerging Markets: Brazil and the Medical Device Industry

Since the 2008 crisis that took place mainly in the United States and Europe, it’s been said a lot about the opportunities in emerging countries. But one shall be careful when analyzing these markets and try to evaluate its potential as objectively as possible.

        When it comes about Brazil and the medical device industry, some challenges one may face when trying to approach this market. Some of them are the bureaucracy, strong regulatory system added to long timelines and delays, high taxes and a structure that varies according to the product which makes hard to know in advance how much the price will be for the final customer.

        However, when you overcome the language and the cultural barriers, it is all worthwhile because Brazil is a huge market, with more than 190 million people, a large public healthcare system which represents 4.1% of its GDP, a US$4 billion in imports and US$700 million in exports of medical devices.

References: http://www.emdt.co.uk/article/medical-devices-brazil-oportunity?cid=nl.emdt03

Celebrate!
October 18 – Brazilian Doctor's Day

Google will start a new company focused on healthcare and biotechnology

Calico will be a new company focused on “health and wellbeing, in particular the challenge of aging and associated diseases”, says the company CEO and co-founder Larry Page in a Google+ post. He goes on in a press statement arguing that, even though the healthcare sector is a lot different from what Google does today, he believes that his company can “improve millions of lives”.

Google hasn’t released any specific plans or projects yet, but to keep the shareholders from worrying, Page says that these investments are very small in comparison to Google’s core business. This is Google’s second effort in the healthcare and biotechnology industry. Google Health was an attempt to store patient medical records online and it was abandoned because of privacy concerns. Besides, app developers in Google were also focused on others projects like Google Glass.

References: http://www.mddionline.com/article/google-calico-wants-you-live-forever

Global Cardiovascular Medical Devices Market by 2015

A report made by Research and Markets suggests that the global cardiovascular medical devices market will worth $65.6 billion by 2015. The report covers the years between 2009 and 2015 and it expects that the market of these devices will have grown at the compound annual growth rate of 9,8%.

When talking about regional markets, it indicates that North America will have the biggest share of the market at 40%, followed by Europe with a share at 30%. Asia-Pacific will be fastest growing region with a growth rate of 11,6% (comparing to the global growth rate of 9,8%), the market is expected to worth $17.9 billion by 2017.

Finally, Research and Markets divides the cardiovascular medical devices market in segments and for each one, the company indicates the CAGR (compound annual growth rate) and market values. For example, it expects that the Cardiac Rythm Management Devices will worth $22.3 billion at a rate of 9.9% by 2017, followed by Interventional Cardiac Devices that will worth $12.3 billion at a rate of 11.6%.

References: http://www.mddionline.com/article/global-cardiac-medical-devices-market-be-worth-656b-2015

Brazilian Healthcare Market 2012: a retrospective

    As an innovative industry, the Brazilian healthcare industry exports to more than 180 countries and generates around 100 thousand jobs in the national territory. The sector is considered an important component in the Brazilian economy. And so, it is important to analyze its updated market numbers.

   ABIMO is the Brazilian Healthcare, Medical and Dental Equipment Industry Association. It releases healthcare market numbers every year. One can access some of the 2012 statistics in ABIMO’s official webpage. There are information about the healthcare national production value, productivity, investment, international trade, national production and demand, Brazilian taxes, etc. Some indicators draw more attention than others. The “healthcare national production value” is one of them, as it reached almost R$5 billion (more than US$2.17 billion) last year. “Investments” is as well an important indicator and it represented more than R$300 million (more than US$130 million) in 2012.

    Unfortunately, the Brazilian healthcare industry must be careful about the numbers of international trade (imports surpassed exports) and the national production only represents 38,9% of the national demand.

References: http://www.abimo.org.br/modules/content/content.php?page=dados-economicos

Medical Device Firms and Its Challenges

As the medical device industry faces some significant market threats these days, like slow-growing market and strong regulatory system, it became necessary to be vigilant for signs and understand when changes are needed. Executives should pay attention to at least four signs that indicate that their companies need to adapt. Frost & Sullivan's Venkat Rajan, principal analyst, who leads the firm's analysis of the medical device sector, discusses what those are.

The first sign is “Utter Lack of Product Differentiation” which means that customers see medical device products as commodities and it leads to customers’ indifference to the product. The second sign is “Profit Model Under Pressure”, this means that the profit margin declines year by year and to assure its market presence companies are facing significant internal cost-cutting. The third sign is “Market Disruptors on the Horizon”, this sign has to do with fast technology development which means that a product becomes obsolete quickly and, sometimes, its substitute proves to be better, faster and cheaper. Finally, the fourth sign is “Internal Infrastructure Deteriorating”, this means that the company’s workforce usually is slow to adapt or innovate and its strategy normally is focused on maintaining its market presence instead of expansion.

References: http://www.mddionline.com/article/four-signs-medtech-firm-needs-reinvent-its-business-model

Healthcare Industry Continues to Impress

Startups of the healthcare sector in USA attracted $1.81 billion from venture capitalists in the second quarter of 2013. Medical device startups represented 38% of the deals and 35% of the dollars invested. This according to the Q2 Venture Capital Activity Report issued by CB Insights, a venture capital database.

Although money invested by venture capitalists into startups declined 14% when compared to the same period last year, the number of deals remained the same. Total investments represented 24% increase over the first quarter when the money invested reached $1.47 billion.

California was the investments main destination (43% of the $1.81 billion invested in the sector and 41% of the deals), followed by Massachusetts (20% of the money invested in the sector and 15% of the number of deals).

The healthcare IPO (Initial Public Offer) market also impressed: 11 of the 22 IPOs in the second quarter of 2013 were of healthcare companies.

References:http://www.mddionline.com/article/q2-venture-capital-investments-early-stage-healthcare-companies-reach-five-quarter-high