Commerce Department Seeks To Boost Medical Device Exports

Article preview from "The Gray Sheet"- June 1, 2010
 

The Department of Commerce is mounting a campaign to promote U.S. medical device exports, with the first in a series of seminars for device firms planned for June.

Commerce Department Seeks To Boost Medical Device Exports

Article preview from "The Gray Sheet"- June 1, 2010

The Department of Commerce is mounting a campaign to promote U.S. medical device exports, with the first in a series of seminars for device firms planned for June.

The efforts are part of President Obama's National Export Initiative, a plan to double U.S. exports over the next five years and increase U.S. jobs.

Jeffrey Gren, director of health and consumer goods at the Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration, promoted the initiative to small- and mid-sized device firms at the Medical Device Manufacturers Association (MDMA) annual meeting in Washington, D.C., last week.

The first seminar will be held June 11 at Medtronic world headquarters in Minneapolis, and the second June 18 at the Massachusetts Medical Society's offices in Waltham, Mass., near Boston.

Representatives from the U.S. Export Assistance Center, the Export-Import Bank, the Small Business Administration and others will discuss global opportunities for the device industry, how the Department of Commerce can assist in export activities and what trade financing opportunities are available to device firms.

"Medical devices are a critical segment within the health care industry, which is one of the pillars of the NEI," Gren told "The Gray Sheet."

The National Export Initiative aims to help U.S. firms across various industries expand sales to new markets, gain access to credit and work around trade barriers to increase exports.

The agency hopes to do several more export seminars for device companies in 2011, Gren said.

Current Trade Surplus At Risk, Industry Fears

MDMA participants noted that the medical device industry represents one of the few sectors of the U.S. economy with a trade surplus.

According to data from the 2007 World Atlas, medical technology accounts for 2.7% of the U.S. gross domestic product and yields a $5.4 billion trade surplus.

But many in the industry believe that barriers to entry are increasing, and that the trade surplus could slow or reverse.

Speakers at the MDMA meeting said that stricter regulatory and reimbursement policies at FDA and CMS are discouraging some U.S. companies from launching domestically at all.

"In the past 12-18 months, we're thinking for every new product: Europe first. And then figure out what we're going to do in the U.S.," said Joe Kiani, CEO of patient-monitoring device firm Masimo and outgoing MDMA chair.

"The medical device industry has been the most successful export entity and industry," he said. "We could start hurting that, unless we can get innovation back on track again."

In recent testimony before the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, David Nexon of the device trade group AdvaMed also noted that the ratio of device exports to imports was narrowing.

Josh Makower, founder and CEO of device incubator ExploraMed, said that U.S. companies should not "be sending patients overseas to get our technology, but actually just be sending our technology overseas because it's been so successful here."

Democratic U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota announced that she is planning a meeting of her Subcommittee on Competitiveness, Innovation and Export Promotion "to examine the medical device approval process and to discuss ways to improve your export options."

"We need to recognize that 90% of the world's customers are outside of our borders," Klobuchar said at an MDMA luncheon. "We need to do everything to assist small- and medium-sized businesses in accessing that."

[Editor's note: More news on the medical device and diagnostics industries is available each week in ¹ 'The Gray Sheet.' Visit our website to sign up for a free trial, or call 1-800-332-2181.]

- Jessica Bylander



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