WALMARK, Consumer Healthcare Company

KEY SECTORS

Medical Equipment Made by CzechCompanies is Conquering the World

One of the fastest growing export commodities in the Czech Republic is the export of a wide spectrum of medical supplies and devices for equipping hospitals. The presentation of Czech producers abroad owes much to the fact that the Czech Republic is a country with a strong healthcare system covering all the fields of modern medicine.

On the territory of the Czech Republic, healthcare offers a wide range of outpatient facilities, hospitals and medical institutions under the patronage of not just the state, but various private entities as well. Czech companies rank among the best in the field of the manufacture and supply of medical materials, devices and equipment for hospitals. Every year, their products travel to a number of countries worldwide. Outside of European Union countries, they find their way to the Russian Federation, the Commonwealth of Independent States, territories in south-eastern Asia, the USA, and recently also to Africa, among others. Czech companies are finding an increasingly solid foothold by supplying products and devices with added value, meaning with a high contribution from research, electronics, and information technologies. Czech exporters focusing on medical supplies of all kinds have experienced rapid growth in the last ten years. They are successful in acquiring lucrative contracts for providing not just individual goods and services, but for equipping entire hospitals, health centres and healthcare chains, including the construction of such facilities. Examples of these can be found in Ghana, Gabon, Laos, Algeria, Trinidad and Tobago, Papua-New Guinea, Columbia, and even Russia and Kazakhstan. For instance, they had a hand in building three hospitals in Gabon and ten health centres in Ghana alone.

ALL-ROUND EQUIPMENT

A number of Czech suppliers of medical equipment have entrenched themselves in highly competitive foreign markets in recent years. These companies put emphasis primarily on three key factors: Research, leading to reaching high technical parameters; Design, aiding in selling the product; and Quality, resulting in the products‘ reliability. A combination of all these criteria can be found, for instance, in medical instruments and traumatological implants, rehabilitation and transport equipment, medicinal and technical gas distribution systems, stabilisers, cobalt radiators, anaesthesiological equip-

ment, and adjustable hospital beds. The value of the export of medical equipment abroad is estimated at 25 billion crowns (approximately USD 1.3 bil.). The majority of this is equipment for operating theatres and inpatient wards. The world leader in this segment is the Linet Group, supplier of medical and nursing beds, furniture, anti-pressure-sore mattresses and more. The company has expanded its range of products with birthing, gynaecological, and dialysis chairs. Of course, Linet is not the only Czech company to find success on foreign markets. The majority of such companies believe strongly in running their own development, indicating that this is the way to beating the competition.

EMPHASIS ON QUALITY

Many successful Czech exporters are members of the Association of Producers and Suppliers of Medical Devices (AVDZP). The Association unites over 100 leading Czech companies from the field that achieve a turnover of approximately 17 billion crowns a year. Their share of export constitutes 35 %. Members of the Association cooperate with a number of research departments of universities, such as the Czech Technical University in Prague, Brno University of Technology, Tomáš Baťa University in Zlín, and Masaryk University in Brno. This serves as further evidence of the attention Czech producers pay to the quality, competitiveness, and technical advancement of their medical equipment. Some of the unique products they export abroad are, among others, degradable stents for the digestive tract, a wide range of steam, hot-air, and chemical sterilisers, lab dryers and incubators. The companies are not only limited to those, however, as they also supply a variety of physical therapy equipment, e.g. electrotherapy devices, sonography devices, lasers and devices for lymphatic drainage therapy. They also export complex systems for biological protection, logistics and decontamination systems and equipment for urgent and long-term care medicine. The majority of Czech manufacturers of medical equipment export most of their core production. This indicates that they are succeeding on the world market. Many Czech companies are following suit, managing to develop and continuously successfully export unique products and patented goods worldwide.

Association of Producers and Suppliers of Medical Devices (AVDZP), Businessinfo.cz

Photo: www.bigstockphoto.com

38 Czech Republic – Your Trade Partner

Czech Republic – Your Trade Partner 39