Medical Device Industry Optimistic About 2009 Despite Global Economic Worries - Emergo Group Finds

Main Category: Medical Devices / Diagnostics
Article Date: 23 Oct 2008 - 9:00 PDT

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Global medical device consulting firm Emergo Group Inc. surveyed more than 1,000 medical device manufacturers, distributors and industry service providers about the current state of their company and prospects for 2009.

Despite a continuing trend of gloomy economic data that seems to show the world economy slipping into recession, most medical device companies report positive domestic and international sales growth and continued optimism about prospects for the industry in 2009.

Key findings:

- A majority - 61% - expect overall sales for their company to increase in 2009, and 84% expect their company to employ the same number or more people one year from now. Only 9% expect sales to decrease.

- When asked about their personal outlook for the medical device industry, 56% said they were "somewhat positive" or "very positive" about the prospects for 2009. Only 17% noted they were "somewhat negative" or "very negative" about 2009.

- More than 61% indicate that domestic sales/orders have been about the same or higher in the last 3 months and 66% said international sales/orders have been the same or higher during the same period.

- 74% plan to expand into new international markets next year.

The survey was conducted October 13-20, 2008 and emailed to more than 11,000 people in the medical device and in-vitro diagnostic (IVD) industry. Approximately 10% of recipients participated in the survey. Among the respondents, 60% work for small medical device companies with fewer than 100 employees; and 40% for medium sized or large companies. Approximately 67% are from North America, 18% from Europe and 10% from Asia. Nearly half (48%) work in medical device regulatory compliance or quality assurance for their company; 21% in general management and 14% in sales/marketing. Survey results can be downloaded in PDF format at http://www.emergogroup.com/industry-survey.

Emergo Group, Inc. is an international medical device consulting firm headquartered in Austin, Texas that helps medical device and IVD manufacturers with medical device regulatory compliance, quality assurance and medical distributor qualification in major markets worldwide. Emergo Group maintains offices in the USA, Canada, Europe, China, Japan and Australia. Information is available online at http://www.EmergoGroup.com.

Source
Chris Schorre
Emergo Group, Inc.