Fresenius (NYSE:FMS) said it opened a new China Design Center in Shanghai to develop products for the Chinese and AsiaPacific regions.
The center will consolidate procurement, local global manufacturing, quality organization facilities and sales and marketing teams to develop and focus on the needs of patients in the region, the company said.
“We decided to open the China Design Center here because the well-qualified engineers in Shanghai, excellent suppliers and a rapidly developing healthcare system, make this the perfect place for us. Millions of patients across China and the Asia-Pacific region with kidney disease still have no access to proper treatment and the opening of the China Design Center is set to change this,” CEO Dr. Olaf Schermeier said in a press release.
Fresenius said it held an opening ceremony for the Minhang District-located center on October 27. The company announced at the Center’s opening it will invest $100 million over the next years towards developing “high quality basic renal therapies at affordable costs,” and that it plans to double the employee base of the center over the next year.
“We are extremely excited about Fresenius Medical Care’s future in China,” China division exec veep Dr. Alan Chan said in a prepared statement. “We have been in this market for many years and the feedback from Chinese patients and clinicians tells us that they truly appreciate the quality that our brand represents.”
“We are recruiting the best and the brightest specialists with different technical backgrounds to meet our high requirements and complement our international R&D teams. With the opening of the China Design Center, we demonstrate our commitment to continuously improving therapy offerings. We are excited to take this important step of providing high quality and affordable renal solutions for patients in China and across the region,” Asia-Pacific region prez Roberto Fusté said in prepared remarks.
Earlier this month, septic shock treatment developer Spectral Medical said it inked a deal with Fresenius to distribute its Endotoxin activity assay devices.
Fresenius will be the non-exclusive distributor of the device in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, the company said.