The Health Industry Summit (tHIS) 2017 hosted by China and organized by Reed Sinopharm, opened in Shanghai at the National Exhibition and Convention Center on May 15th with thousands of healthcare industry professionals from more than 150 countries and regions in attendance.

Reed Sinopharm is a joint venture between the world’s leading event organizer Reed Exhibitions and China’s leading stateowned medical & pharmaceutical group Sinopharm, ranked number 205 on the fortune 500 list. Now in its third edition, tHIS has been firmly established as the world’s largest health industry event with over 350,000 square meters of exhibition space and 160 individual events and conferences.

With an increase in consumer income, an intensified focus on health, and the Chinese Government’s emphasis on healthcare shifting from diagnosis and treatment to prevention, more advanced home-use medical devices and wearables are expected to see an increase in demand. Key events at tHIS 2017 included China’s three top medical equipment and pharmaceutical exhibitions (CMEF, PHARMCHINA and API China) and the leading healthcare investment forum - Healthcare China 2017.

This year’s investment forum was co-organised by Reed Sinopharm, JP Morgan Asset management, China International Capital Corporation and Sinopharm Capital and was attended by more than 1000 CEOs, investors and institutions. More than 7000 exhibiting companies from 30 countries were present at the China Medical Equipment Fair (CMEF) including medical device companies like GE, United Imaging, Siemens, Philips and Mindray as well as major pharmaceutical groups in China including Sinopharm, Shanghai Pharma and CR Pharmaceuticals.

The majority of the companies in the medical field choose CMEF as their Global or Asia Pacific new product launch platform and more than 600 new product launches took place during the 4 days of the show.

During the event, United Imaging Healthcare (UIH) launched 9 new products among which the world’s first total-body PET-CT (TB PET-CT) made its debut. As stated by Stella Chen, marketing operation specialist at UIH, uExplorer will open new doors for researchers in fields of precise diagnosis, treatment of severe diseases and the research and development of anti-cancer drugs.

GE launched its first cloud based digital application for medical equipment management APM (asset performance management), which was developed by their China team. “Asset Performance Management from GE Digital makes your operations safer and more reliable while helping to ensure optimal performance at a lower sustainable cost. Built on Predix, the operating system for the Industrial Internet, APM manages collaborative workflows between experts and operational teams”, explained Lawrence Fu, Sales representative, Wuhan office, GE Healthcare China.

Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) also attended the event with their gene sequencer BGISEQ-500, a benchtop high-throughput open sequencing platform that provides end-to-end solutions.

Mindray Medical International Limited, a medical equipment manufacturer in China, exhibited the latest devices from its key business lines, namely Patient Monitoring and Life Support, and Medical Imaging System.

Philips Healthcare displayed its digital radiotherapy systems that are highly customizable. Slash Liu, member at the Diagnostic X-ray unit, Philips Healthcare, China explained the details of the new products introduced in the Advanced Molecular Nuclear Imaging unit at Philips.

AllTech Medical Systems, based in Chengdu, Beijing, Hangzhou and Cleveland presented a wide range of medical imaging products and solutions. Leon Lei, International Marketing and Sales Manager, spoke about the company’s goal of becoming a global leader in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Molecular Imaging, Computed Tomography, Mammography, Ultrasound, and other emerging fields in medical diagnostic imaging.

A large number of domestic medical equipment manufacturers participated in the fair namely Wuhan Zoncare, Guangdong Softlink, Shenzhen Well D, Pentax Medical, Mednova, Tonglu Wanhe, to promote their products for international sales. “Huger is proud to be the first manufacturer of medical video endoscope in China. CMEF is an amazing platform for us to showcase our products and to consider service to other parts of the world”, added Stella Fang, Vice President, Huger Medical Instrument Co., Ltd.

Manel Moliner from Barcelona based company BioSystems felt that Spring CMEF is considered to be the best showcase for strengthening business in Asia. “It provides an opportunity for BioSystems to position in the Chinese healthcare market, with great potential for international medical equipment suppliers.”

Dr. Mike Schaefers, Vice President, Global Product Management, West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. spoke in detail about the company’s main objective of designing and producing technologically advanced, highquality, integrated containment and delivery systems for injectable medicines. “The whole event has been very fruitful. Our company keeps attending conferences and summits globally. It helps in giving us a boost for our products.” US based West Pharma had introduced Verux line of pharmaceutical packaging components for the Asia Pacific market few months ago. “This dedicated brand of fit-for-purpose stoppers and seals for injectable drug products provides quality packaging solutions for local pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies”, Mike Schaefers highlighted.

Japanese glass manufacturer Nippon Electric Glass Co., Ltd exhibited its wide range of products including borosilicate glass tubing that is frequently used in the field of medical care. Masahi Takahata, General Manager, Sales was very optimistic and satisfied with the whole experience at tHIS. “We would definitely take our products to India after China”, said Masahi Takahata.

Natural Health and Nutrition Expo were among the fastest growing segments in the portfolio. Popular international brands like Blackmores, Nature Made and Garden of Life made their debut at the show along with 700 suppliers of health food and supplements, bringing with them popular product lines tailored to the Chinese market.

tHIS 2017 was also used as a platform for World Medical Robots Innovation and Development Summit to reflect the growing trend for robotics and AI applications. China’s healthcare sector has been attracting increasing investment from global investors who are keen on entering or expanding their presence in China.

tHIS 2017 served as a great place for global healthcare companies to demonstrate their product and process excellence, and learn China’s regulations and policies in the industry. The next edition will be held in April 2018 in Shanghai.