Taiwan’s medical device output to hit $3.3b: ITRI

Taiwan’s annual medical equipment production value is expected to break the NT$100 billion (US$3.33 billion) mark this year and could reach NT$120 billion in 2013, an IndustrialTechnology Research Institute (ITRI) official forecast Wednesday.

Richard Shau, head of the ITRI’s Biomedical Technology and Device Research Laboratories, said the country’s medical equipment industry has been growing rapidly in recent years.

Speaking on the final day of the two-day 2012 Bio Business Asiaforum in Taipei, Shau noted that the ITRI began to organise theannual discussion platform 11 years ago.

This year’s conference included an increased proportion of venture capitalists from the medical device market, indicating that Taiwan’srising potential in this market has drawn attention from globalinvestors, said Shau.

A decade ago, Taiwan’s annual medical device production valuewas about NT$25 billion, an amount that had surged to NT$99.7 billionin 2011, he added.

The most lucrative products in the sector are contact lenses, glucose meters and kidney dialysis machines, respectively, according to the ITRI.

Shau said that Taiwan currently holds a 1 percent share in the global glucose metre market and he added that its market share could rise to 3 percent within two years, with a value ofNT$15 billion.

Glucose meters are mostly used for monitoring diabetes andhypoglycemia sufferers.

Taiwan’s glucose metre market share could expand to 5 percent in five years with the right technology, Shau added.

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Category: Taiwan