Is Alibaba Healthcare — A Game Changer? NOT SO FAST!
With a mission to do business anywhere and everywhere, “Alibaba healthcare” has had its struggles in gaining success, even in the $30.93BOTC pharmaceuticals market in China. While “Alibaba healthcare” has had fairly attractive sales growth for each of the past three years, it has lost many millions of dollars and its stock, listed in the HK exchange, is currently languishing around $0.51 USD (as of this writing) per share. These results bode poorly in the face of an industry where the economic winds are trending strongly in its favor. Finally, it might lead reasonable minds to conclude that this Alibaba healthcare venture after all might not be the game-changer it once was purported to become.
Accepted consensus is that the global healthcare marketplace is being transformed before our very eyes, and those that do not adapt would be left behind. As TMR (Transparency Research Report) points out that making investments in emerging markets is the primary strategy adopted by key players in U.S medical devices market. And as a result, their sales in China produce more than 20% of their annual revenues and are expected to grow by a rate of about 10.6% CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate). Presently in the USA, imported medical devices represent an increasingly significant segment of the market, and now account for around 30% of the total U.S medical device market (1).
Although developed markets dominate medical device sales today (US, EU and Japan accounting for 75% of total sales) emerging markets represent faster growth opportunities with growth rates 2 to 5 times those of developed countries, according to Mc Kinsey & Co. 2013 report on the global medical device industry and note that seven of the world’s top 10 medical device manufacturers are U.S. companies.
Smart leaders in those manufacturing companies are moving production of medical devices to countries that have lower cost of production, and have their eyes on capturing a fair amount of sales in those emerging markets. To wit, India has become a hot-bed for tourist’s orthopedic implants, Costa Rica for many healthcare procedures, and even the close by Mexico for lower cost dental implants. Thus, demand for highly efficient supply chain management with a world view and attendant capabilities, has quickly blossomed.
Here, Synthium Health is right at home in this new and challenging world where suppliers are demanding end-to-end visibility in tracking transactions with their valued customers, wherever they may be located in the world. Even customers have high expectations in that products ordered will not be diverted or tampered with, which might result in harmful health outcomes. It is here that Synthium Health is indeed the global game-changer that Alibaba has failed to become. It’s world view is to be facilitating a platform for medical device and other medical products suppliers, healthcare providers and their patients, in concerted focus to deliver best outcomes.
Synthium Health is a cloud-based, block chain enabled, digital information and commerce platform engineered exclusively for the global healthcare industry. Our automated supply chain management solutions create remarkable experiences between trading partners by driving collaborative engagement and conversion.
(1)Epsom, The Medical Device Market: USA Opportunities and Challenges 2013.
