Business

Taiwan medical device industry taps seniors market

The 2011 Taiwan International Senior Lifestyle and Health Care Show in the Taipei World Trade Center attracts crowds of visitors from around the island. (Courtesy of TAITRA)

• Publication Date：04/15/2012
• Source： Taiwan Today
• By  Aaron Hsu

Taiwan’s population has been aging quickly in recent years. According to the Ministry of the Interior, by the end of 2011 the number of Taiwanese citizens aged 65 or above stood at 2.53 million, or 10.89 percent of the total population. By contrast, there were only one million senior citizens 18 years ago.

The government forecasts that by 2015 one out of five people in Taiwan will be above the age of 65.

“The aging of Taiwan is a phenomenon with far-reaching consequences,” said Hsu Yeh-liang, director of the Gerontechnology Research Center at Taoyuan-based Yuan Ze University. “It is a cause for concern not only because it is happening so fast, but also because the number of newborns is simultaneously decreasing rapidly,” he said.

According to the MOI, Taiwan’s fertility rate plummeted to a historic low of 0.899 percent in 2011—which means that the average woman in Taiwan gives birth to slightly less than one child in her lifetime. “So adults of today will have fewer children to support them when old,” Hsu said.

“The support system for retirees will quickly weaken, and in the future senior citizens will have to take care of themselves more,” he added. “Because of all these factors, scores of businesses now cater to baby boomers, a group defined as those born between 1946 and 1966.”

One such business is the medical device manufacturing industry, which not surprisingly has been growing by leaps and bounds in recent years. According to a Ministry of Economic Affairs report, the output value of Taiwan’s medical devices industry reached NT$92.8 billion (US$314 million) in 2010, up 12.5 percent from the year before.

Many of these companies also export their goods, with the top three best-selling products being electric vehicles designed for the elderly and the disabled, diabetes test strips, and plastic supplies used in labs and operating rooms.

Blood glucose meters came in at No. 6, an indication of the great importance that seniors place on preventing diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, the most common chronic illnesses to strike the old. Massage products, used to ease pain in different parts of the body, were the ninth most popular export item.

Hsu Yeh-liang, director of the Gerontechnology Research Center at Taoyuan-based Yuan Ze University, says that Taiwan’s population has aged dramatically over the last few years. (Staff photo/Chen Mei-ling)

“Medical devices are becoming more individualized and preventative in nature,” the MOEA report noted. “We expect this trend to last because aging processes have been identified not only in developed countries but also in emerging economies.”

Taipei-headquartered Health and Life Co. Ltd. is a pivotal local manufacturer of blood glucose and pressure monitors. Founded in 1996, the company puts great emphasis on R&D and has secured several patents over the years, including one that adds touch user interfaces to medical devices, and another that reminds users when it is time to take their medicine.

In 2010, the company’s revenue surged 27.3 percent year on year to NT$1.21 billion, with more than 90 percent of its products sold to Europe and North America.

Delta Electronics Inc., one of Taiwan’s leading electronic components providers, also entered the arena with a large-screen fast-response blood sugar meter in 2010.

Asked what needs to be done to better support the emerging medical devices industry, Health and Life CEO Albert Lee said he would like to see a friendlier legal environment that makes it easier for medical device producers to partner with information technology companies.

“These incoming technology companies, though strong in their original line of work, often find it difficult to understand related regulations and thus miss many good chances to apply their manufacturing skills and R&D expertise to the making of medical devices,” Lee said at a February 21 forum on how to combine the strengths of the two sectors.

A senior is introduced to a colorful program that records and analyzes motion balance. (Courtesy of Plastics Industry Development Center)

Medical devices in Taiwan are regulated according to the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act, which divides the devices into three classes according to their functional risk rather than their operation mechanisms or components, said Shau Yio-wha, director-general of Biomedical Technology and Device Research Laboratories under the Industrial Technology Research Institute.

“Low-risk devices are those such as Band-Aids and condoms; medium-risk ones include infusion pumps and electricity-powered wheelchairs; as for high-risk medical devices, they are more expensive, complicated and, most importantly, have a long-term influence on the human body,” Shau explained. “Among the third class are things such as coronary stents, artificial cardiac pacemakers and dental implants.”

Liu Li-ling, director of the Division of Medical Devices and Cosmetics under the Department of Health’s Taiwan Food and Drug Administration, added that the majority of medium- and high-risk devices can be authorized for sale only if they deliver satisfying performance results and pass safety and quality tests.

Medical devices manufacturers and distributors should also be regulated to ensure their operational proficiency, she added.

“Manufacturers should prove that they work in compliance with local Good Manufacturing Practice requirements; distributors, on the other hand, are encouraged to follow the Good Distribution Practice system when purchasing, receiving and storing their products,” Liu said.

She stresses that the suggestion is not legally binding as of now.

Most high-value medical devices for the elderly are risky ones and therefore take longer to produce, Shau said.

Shau Yio-wha (second from right), director-general of ITRI Biomedical Technology and Device Research Laboratories, watches as a colleague operates a stroke rehabilitation device in May 2011. (Courtesy of ITRI)

But the ITRI has made a significant change in recent years, trying to integrate technical and regulatory thinking to turn out profitable apparatuses more quickly.

“We have successfully developed several kinds of mobility aids for elders with degenerative arthritis,” Shau said. “In addition, we have invented a respiratory training device that helps seniors overcome breathing difficulties.”

The Cycling and the Health Industry R&D Center in central Taiwan is also engaged in similar efforts. Officials from the center said they now operate the Rapid Prototyping Center, which cuts device development time from an average of five to nine years to less than 12 months.

“Last year it took us just nine months to develop an exercise board installed with balance sensors,” the official said. “The product has now been commercially transferred to Taichung-based Care and Care Health Products Co. Ltd., which will sell the product at a cost of NT$120,000 (US$4,054) per unit.”

The exercise board is expected to generate NT$400 million in revenue over the next three years, he added.

According to the DOH, 20.5 percent of elderly citizens in Taiwan experience a serious fall sometime in their old age. The board is expected to make profits from these people’s need to strengthen their body coordination and reactivity.

In response to calls from businesses, the DOH is streamlining its review process. For example, the average device authentication time was reduced to 82 days in 2011.

“It is a significant advantage compared with the average wait time of about 90 days that we find in South Korea,” Liu said.

Liu Li-ling, director of the Division of Medical Devices and Cosmetics under the DOH Taiwan Food and Drug Administration, speaks at an Asian Harmonization Working Party meeting in Indonesia, November 2011. (Courtesy of Liu Li-ling)

In addition, more than 60 technical sessions are scheduled to be held this year, with the aim of familiarizing the industry with legal issues and places such as hotlines and websites where more help from the DOH can be found.

Aging is a phenomenon that everyone has to experience, and it is foreseeable that more medical devices will be invented to serve the growing senior population. Liu said the DOH will put equal emphasis on streamlining regulations and safeguarding public health. (HZW)

Write to Aaron Hsu at pj1210meister@mail.gio.gov.tw