President Barack Obama says China is Gov. Mitt Romney’s favorite labor source. Gov. Romney says President Obama has not been tough enough with monetary policy.
Both candidates have been using the country as a convenient villain during the debates especially, and the subject will undoubtedly come up during tonight’s debate.
While the candidates are trying their best efforts to vilify the communist nation, businesses — especially med tech companies — are looking to China for their salvation. As growth has stalled in the U.S. and Japan, and austerity measures in Europe are slowing sales there, companies are looking eastward for any sign of meaningful growth. In fact, the way Medtronic, the world’s biggest medical device manufacturer, approaches China is a much truer reflection of how many American companies see the world’s most populous country.
Just last week, Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) announced that it is taking a 19 percent equity stake in cardiovascular device maker Lifetech Scientific Corp., worth $46.6 million, and will also buy a $19.6 million convertible note that amounts to another 7.4 percent equity stake
“China is key to our global strategy as we continue to expand our geographic footprint and strive to meet the needs of local cardiovascular patients, and this agreement reaffirms our commitment to this important market,” said Mike Coyle, executive vice president and president of the Cardiac and Vascular Group at Medtronic.
Last month, Medtronic bought orthopedics company Kanghui for $755 million in its first Chinese acquisition.
In August, the medical device manufacturer opened a research center in China, the first one outside Europe or America.
Over five years, Medtronic will hire and train an additional 1,000 skilled workers, several hundreds of who will develop new medical technologies within the Innovation Center.
The center will also function as an incubator for Chinese physicians to commercialize novel ideas into clinical solutions.
Covidien also has a research center in Shanghai.
Also, China should soon be entering the vaccine market soon with its vaccine against Japanese encephalitis, a mosquito-borne disease. Made by China’s top vaccine maker, China National Biotech Group, the vaccine is likely to win so-called prequalification status from the World Health Organization.
China’s consumer market is important to American device companies as well. As more Chinese people adopt a Western diet, there will be a market for devices related to obesity, like CPAP machines.
Nuance is not the most popular campaign tactic, but both candidates should recognize the reality of China’s huge role in all aspects of the world economy. Medtronic is not the only American company building partnerships like this, and supporting American companies means supporting their strategic decisions in regard to China.
{Image from flickr user flickr.Marcus}
By Veronica Combs
I am the editor in chief at MedCityNews.com. I started writing and editing in the print world and joined a dotcom right before the 2000 crash. I was at TechRepublic/CNET/BNET for 7 years. Health was more interesting to me than the latest version of Windows, so I left for a startup tracking prescription drug news. A year later, MedTrackAlert was acquired by HealthCentral, so I shifted to audience research. The fun of daily news and interviewing smart people brought me to MedCity News in February 2012.More posts by Author
As the mother of a daughter who nearly died, due to a lousy prescription medication, manufactured in China, Entex PSE from a pharmaceutical company from India, I don't give a damn what Medtronics thinks, or cares about.. they certainly don't care about the health of consumers. I'm fed up with those who know the price of everything, but the value of nothing. The prescription was a decongestant/time released expectorant, that far from time releasing, released massive amounts of expectorant. It caused her severe respiratory & heart distress. Because I'm so persistent, and didn't give up, I learned that the FDA, which didn't require this foreign company to submit it's medicines to testing, allowed it to be prescribed to US patients. They banned it in May of 2007, but allowed it to be dispensed until November of 2007. There's not enough China bashing going on, they are threatening Australia if the country continues to be an ally of the US. China poisons it's own people, anyone with half a brain cell rattling around knows that means they don't give a fig about our own citizens and are not to be trusted. If Medtronics cares so little about us, I suggest it inflicts it's shoddy products on the Chinese market exclusively.
bad people are everywhere, don't blame China. try to get more answers from NECC!