GE joins hands with Chinese firm for ultrasound solutions

GE Healthcare has once again entered into a joint venture with China National Medical Device (CMDC), a subsidiary of China National Pharmaceutical Group (a Sinopharm company).

The two companies have an existing joint venture relationship through Hangwei, a medical equipment manufacturing company formed in 1991.

In line with GE HealthCare’s business strategy to grow in emerging markets with a local approach tailored to customer needs, the joint venture will enable develop, manufacture, and commercialize medical equipment to address the growing needs of China’s healthcare market, according to a GE filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The renewed collaboration between GE HealthCare and Sinopharm is aimed at developing and commercializing medical equipment that will best serve China’s healthcare needs. It’ll start with a focus on “non-premium CT and general imaging ultrasound solutions,” per the filing, tailoring those imaging devices to both regular primary care and rural health settings.

If all goes well through that initial phase, GE HealthCare wrote, “The product scope may be further expanded by agreement of the two parties.”

The new joint venture’s initial focus on imaging reflects that of GE and Sinopharm’s last collaboration, which began in 1991 and still continues on today. That agreement resulted in the creation of Hangwei, another China-based medical equipment manufacturer that kicked off with an eye toward building CT and ultrasound devices in the country.

According to a report from Diagnostic Imaging at the time, GE teamed up with Sinopharm largely to help boost production of CT scanners in China, where imports of the devices were restricted by quota and only one domestic manufacturer was then producing the scanners.

Hangwei has since expanded into other imaging technologies, including MRI—though in 1991, the company’s founders weren’t sure they’d reach that point. As the late David Wang, then the VP for China projects at GE, told Diagnostic Imaging, MRI was not only much more expensive than other imaging tools, but was also “still in the very early stages” in the country, with only 10 to 15 of the scanners installed in China at the time.
MB Bureau