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TECHNOLOGY

Home TECHNOLOGY Page 5

Sharing Economy
by EOS Intelligence EOS Intelligence No Comments

Sharing Economy in the GCC: A Success Story Waiting to Happen

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The current landscape in the Gulf countries is believed to show solid scope for sharing economy platforms’ growth. On the other hand, the region still lacks consumer engagement as well as updated and adequate regulations, which may cause these platforms to stumble and fall on their way to growth.

The concept of sharing economy has been spreading with great velocity worldwide with the advent of new technologies and connectedness. It emerged as a recognized concept around 2008-2010 with the arrival of successful players such as Uber and Airbnb offering P2P platforms that allowed financially strapped consumers to earn extra income. Global sharing economy was valued at US$15 billion in 2014 and is expected to reach US$335 billion by 2025.

GCC’s good foundations and latent potential

In 2016 alone, PwC estimated that consumers in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) spent US$10.7 billion within five sectors of the sharing economy platforms – household services, accommodation, business services, transportation, and financial services.

The spending in sharing economy was of course lower than spending on similar services acquired through traditional avenues – for instance, in 2016, hotel revenues were expected to hit US$24.9 billion in the GCC, a considerably higher sum than accommodation revenues in the sharing economy that totaled to US$1.29 billion in that same year. This indicates latent potential, and with part of the traditional service revenue possibly taken over by sharing economy, the scope for growth is very promising, underpinned by favorable characteristics of the GCC countries.

Young and technologically-participative population

Sharing economy platforms do not hire employees directly but work with self-employed service providers instead. The essence of these platforms is to enable people – mainly young, dynamic, and technologically-participative – to use them as a way to exchange goods or services for money.

The appeal of the GCC for sharing economy platforms is exactly that – the diversity and demographic profile of the region’s population allows sharing economy platforms to reach a large pool of young, tech-savvy consumers and service providers. In 2018, 60% of the GCC population was under the age of 30 – considered key demographic to interact and use sharing economy services on both the demand and supply side.

Large immigrant pool willing to engage

Another market growth driver that is somewhat unique to the region is the large percentage of non-nationals living and working in the GCC. Between 2016 and 2017, 51% of the Gulf region total population were non-citizens, who, according to a 2016 PwC survey, were active users of the sharing economy services, largely due to relatively low incomes and limited (if any) access to other ways of improving their financial standing. The region’s large volume of immigrants has always been a steady trait that is very unlikely to change in the future. Due to this, high numbers of expatriates participating in the sharing economy platforms on a daily basis is likely to ensure a long-term steady growth of these platforms in the region.

(Slowly) growing women’s economic inclusion

Another appealing aspect of the GCC market is that all six countries have been changing (alas, slowly) their attitude towards women’s economic inclusion, fueled by shifting cultural norms that traditionally imposed limitations on women’s ability to work and earn.

This change is likely to allow them to participate more actively in the workforce, and a ride-hailing app company could be a good option to provide transportation to and from work to female workers, since in some GCC countries they are not allowed to drive by themselves, while in others they customarily do not often do it. With women representing around 40% of the GCC population, higher financial independence places them in the group of potential consumers of sharing economy goods and services for their transportation as well as household services needs.

Eagerly-consumed fast connectivity

Regardless of the gender participation mix at both supply and demand side, the sharing economy players are certainly set to benefit from fast adoption of technology by local consumers in the GCC. In 2017, 64% of the population owned a smartphone and, by 2018, 77% of the GCC population were mobile network subscribers. Such rates seem to give strong foundation for sharing economy platforms to grow.

Moreover, the GCC highly tech-savvy youth seeks new technologies and faster mobile connections. In response, the Gulf countries aim to become global leaders of 5G deployment (all markets planning to launch 5G by 2020), a major contributing driver to the sharing economies growth in the region. High-speed mobile connections plus a growing pool of eager-tech young adults willing to engage in P2P platforms are likely to become a major driver for their growth.

Sharing Economy in the GCC A Success Story Waiting to Happen

Nonetheless, despite these favorable foundations, there may be roadblocks representing a threat for the success of sharing economy platforms in the Gulf region.

Large immigrant pool refrained from joining the platforms

One of the key obstacles is the cultural-legal environment prevalent in the region. While the region has long been characterized by large share of immigrants in local populations, their way of working is controlled by Kafala, an outdated sponsorship system carried out by the GCC. This system allows immigrants to work in the region only for their sponsor, who is legally responsible for them during the time of his or her stay.

Kafala system does not allow for self-employment, nor does it allow for second employment beyond the job given by the sponsor. Since sharing economy companies interact mainly with freelance service providers, there is a large portion of expatriates working in the GCC who will find it difficult to be able to freely join the platforms as service providers.

Explore our other Perspectives on sharing economy

Lack of legislation and consumer protection

Lack of a dedicated government entity to oversee sharing economy services in the Gulf countries may cause consumers to be wary of using these platforms, ultimately hindering market growth.

According to a 2016 survey conducted by PwC, GCC users put considerable emphasis on trust and transparency when dealing with online providers, two factors that can influence their purchasing decisions.

In sharing economy, users need to be able to trust platforms’ screening process for providers before they deal with them. As a result, if the states do not establish bodies and laws governing sharing economy services, the platforms could witness weak demand from both consumers and services suppliers who are cautious about protecting themselves.

Limited awareness and lack of need

Lack of consumer awareness and simply lack of need for the sharing economy services is also an issue for the market growth since not all GCC nationals seem to be aware about the existence of the sharing economy platforms.

According to the same PwC survey, an average of 21-35% of respondents were not familiar with the sharing economy concept. This could be attributed to the fact that many households in GCC countries have traditionally enjoyed high income levels, a fact that resulted in no need for shared services and allowed them to afford services of expatriate workers hired directly and for long term (e.g. employing a household driver or cleaner, rather than using external providers as needed).

Consequently, local consumers may not see the need to use an online platform dampening the success of sharing economy platforms. This might change, as households’ incomes growth stagnates and sharing economy could help stretch that income.

EOS Perspective

The GCC countries could be a promising landscape for sharing economy platforms to dock successfully. The region offers growing population, continues to be characterized by a solid base of young, tech-savvy users, as well as females and non-citizens available to participate in the sharing economy market.

However, despite the current growth, these platforms could nosedive unless local authorities deal with regulatory deficiencies. A dedicated supervisory entity is required to allow local authorities to regulate sharing economy companies, which will also provide support to consumers through consumer protection and better screening processes of services providers. Local customers clearly manifest their need for such a protection, and the lack of it is likely to dampen the demand and thus market growth.

The update of labor policies such as the Kafala system is also required for sharing economy platforms to witness a continuous growth. This growth can only happen through allowing a good share of the readily-available pool of expatriates to work under a more flexible scheme these platforms require. This is something for GCC states to consider, as there region is increasingly facing the requirement for economic diversification and stimulation of its sluggish economies. Creating labor policies that allow people to work for sharing economy platforms legally (at least as a secondary employment, as it is increasingly allowed in Dubai) is likely to create employment opportunities across the region, spurring consumer spending and generating tax revenues.

While there also are other obstacles in the GCC sharing economy market, it is the lack of appropriate regulation and supervision of the industry, as well as the current form of the Kafala system that are the two key challenges to the market’s accelerated growth. Considering the nature of these challenges, it seems that the potential of this market is unlikely to be realized without active facilitation by the local governments. However, it is uncertain to what extent the governments will try to understand the potential economic benefits of fully embracing sharing economy, and change the deeply-rooted, long-standing, archaic labor laws.

by EOS Intelligence EOS Intelligence No Comments

Connecting Africa – Global Tech Players Gaining Foothold in the Market

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While in the past, most global tech companies have focused their attention on emerging Asian markets, such as India, Indonesia, Vietnam, etc., they have now understood the potential also offered by African markets. Africa currently stands at the brink of technical renaissance, with tech giants from the USA and China competing to establish here a strong foothold. That being said, Africa’s technological landscape is extremely complex owing to major connectivity and logistical issues, along with a limited Internet user base. Companies that wish to enter the African markets by replicating their entry and operating models from other regions cannot be assured of success. In addition to global tech firms building their ground in Africa, a host of African start-ups are increasingly finding funding from local as well as global VC and tech players.

Great potential challenged by insufficient connectivity

Boasting of a population exceeding 1.2 billion (spread across 50 countries) and being home to six of the world’s ten fastest-growing economies, Africa is increasingly seen as the final frontier by large global technology firms.

However, the African landscape presents its own set of challenges, which makes increasing tech penetration extremely complex in the market. To begin with, only about 35% of the continent’s population has access to the Internet, as compared with the global rate of 54%. Thus, Africa’s future in the technology space greatly depends on its ability to improve digital connectivity. This also stands in the way of large tech-based players that wish to gain foothold in the market.

Large players try to lay the necessary foundations

Due to this fundamental challenge, companies such as Google, Facebook, and IBM have initiated long-pronged strategies focusing on connectivity and building infrastructure across Africa. Facebook’s Free Basics program (which provides access to a few websites, including Facebook and Whatsapp, without the need to pay for mobile data) has been greatly focused on Africa, and is available in 27 African countries. With Facebook’s partnership with Airtel Africa, the company has started to strengthen its position in the continent.

Similarly, Google has launched Project Link, under which it rolled out a metro fiber network in Kampala, Uganda, with Ghana being in the pipeline. Through such efforts and investments, Google is aimed at bringing about faster and more reliable internet to the Africans.

Microsoft, which has been one of the first players to enter the African turf, is also undertaking projects to improve connectivity in Africa. The company has invested in white spaces technology, which uses unused radio spectrum to provide Wi-Fi connectivity at comparatively lower costs.

However, managing to get people online is only the first step in the long journey to develop a growing market. Companies need to understand the specific dynamics of the local markets and develop new business models that will fit well in the African market.

For instance, globally, the revenue model for several leading tech companies, such as Google and Facebook, largely depend on online advertising. However, the same model may not thrive in most African markets due to a limited digital footprint of the consumers as well as the fact that the business community in the continent continues to draw most transactions offline, using cash.

Connecting Africa – Global Technology Firms Gaining a Foothold in the Market

Players employ a range of strategies to penetrate the market

These tech giants must work closely with local businesses and achieve an in-depth understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities that the African continent presents. Therefore, these companies are increasingly focusing on looking for collaborations that will help in the development of successful and sustainable businesses in the continent.

Leading players, such as Google and Microsoft have been investing heavily in training local enterprises in digital skills to encourage businesses to go online, so that they will become potential customers for them in the future.

While this strategy has been used somewhat extensively by US-based and European companies, a few Chinese players have recently joined the bandwagon. For instance, Alibaba’s founder, Jack Ma announced a US$10 million African Young Entrepreneurs Fund on his first visit to Africa in July 2017. The scheme will help 200 budding entrepreneurs learn and develop their tech business with support from Alibaba.

The company has also been focusing on partnerships and collaborations to strengthen its position in the African market. Understanding the logistical challenges in the African continent, Alibaba has signed a wide-ranging agreement with French conglomerate, Bollore Group, which covers cloud services, digital transformation, clean energy, mobility, and logistics. The logistics part of the agreement will help Alibaba leverage on Bollore’s strong logistics network in Africa’s French-speaking nations.

Considering the importance of mobile wallets and m-payments in Africa, Alibaba has expanded its payment system, Alipay, to South Africa (through a partnership with Zapper, a South Africa-based mobile payment system) as well as Kenya (through a partnership with Equitel, a Kenya-based mobile virtual network operator). In many ways, it is applying its lessons learnt in the Chinese market with regards to payments and logistics, to better serve the African continent.

While Chinese players (such as Alibaba and Baidu) have been comparatively late in entering the African turf, they are expected to pose a tough competition to their Western counterparts as they have the advantage of coming from an emerging market themselves, with a somewhat better understanding of the challenges and complexities of a digitally backward market.

For instance, messaging app WeChat brought in by Tencent, China-based telecom player, has provided stiff competition to Whatsapp, which is owned by Facebook and is a leading player in this space. WeChat has used its experience in the Chinese market (where mobile banking is also popular just as it is across Africa) and has collaborated with Standard Chartered Bank to launch WeChat wallet. In addition, WeChat has collaborated with South Africa’s largest media company, Naspers, which has provided several value added services to its consumers (such as voting services to viewers of reality shows, which are very popular in Africa). Thus, by aligning the app to the needs and preferences of the African consumers, it has made the app into something more than just a messaging service.

While collaboration has been the go-to strategy for a majority of tech companies, a few players have preferred to enter the market by themselves. Uber, a leading peer-to-peer ridesharing company entered Africa without collaborations and is currently present in 16 countries.

While entering without forging partnerships with local entities helps a company maintain full control over its operations in the market, in some cases it may result in slower adoption of its services by the local population (as they may not be completely aligned with their preferences and needs). This can be seen in the case of Netflix, a leading player in the video streaming service, which extended its services to all 54 countries in Africa in January 2016 (the company has, however, largely focused on South Africa). Despite being a global leader, Netflix has witnessed conservative growth in the continent and expects only 500,000 subscribers across the continent by 2020.

On the other hand, Africa’s local players ShowMax and iROKO TV have gained more traction, due to better pricing, being more mobile friendly (downloading option) and having more relatable and local content, which made their offer more attractive to local populations.

Netflix, slowly understanding the complexities of the market, has now started developing local content for the South African market and working on offering Netflix in local currency. The company has also decided to collaborate with a few local and Middle-Eastern players to find a stronger foothold in the market. In November 2018, the company signed a partnership with Telkom, a South African telecommunication company, wherein Netflix will be available on Telkom’s LIT TV Box. Similarly, it partnered with Dubai-based pay-TV player, OSN, wherein OSN subscribers in North Africa and Middle East will gain access to Netflix’s content available across the region. However, while Netflix may manage to develop a broader subscriber base in South Africa and a few other more developed countries, there is a long road ahead for the company to capture the African continent as a whole, especially since its focus has been on TV-based partnerships rather than mobile (which is a more popular medium for the Internet in Africa).

On the other hand, Chinese pay-TV player, StarTimes has had a decade-long run in Africa and has more than 20 million subscribers across 30 African countries. While operating by itself, the company has strongly focused on local content and sports. It also deploys a significant marketing budget in the African market. For instance, it signed a 10-year broadcast and sponsorship deal with Uganda’s Football Association for US$7 million. To further its reach, the company also announced a project to provide 10,000 African villages with access to television.

US-based e-commerce leader, Amazon, is following a different strategy to penetrate the African markets. Following an inorganic approach, in 2017, Amazon acquired a Dubai-based e-retailer, Souq.com, which has presence in North Africa. However, the e-commerce giant is moving very slowly on the African front and is expected to invest heavily in building subsidiaries for providing logistics and warehousing as it has done in other markets, such as India. This approach to enter and operate in the African market is not widely popular, as it will require huge investment and a long gestation period.

Local tech start-ups are on the rise

While leading tech giants across the globe are spearheading the technology boom in Africa, developments are also fueled by local start-ups. As per the Disrupt Africa Tech Startups Funding Report 2017, 159 African tech start-ups received investments of about US$195 million in 2017, marking a more than 50% increase when compared to the investments received in 2016.

While South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya remained the top three investment destinations, there is an increasing investor interest in less developed markets, such as Ghana, Egypt, and Uganda. Start-ups in the fintech space received maximum interest and investments. Moreover, international VC such as Amadeus and EchoVC as well as local African funds appear keen to invest in African start-ups. The African governments are also supporting start-up players in the tech space – a prime example being the Egyptian government launching its own fund dedicated to this objective.

African fintech start-ups, Branch and Cellulant, have been two of the most successful players in the field, raising US$70 million and US$47.5 million, respectively, in 2018. While Branch is an online micro-lending start-up, Cellulant is a digital payments solution provider. Both companies have significant presence across Africa.

EOS Perspective

Although US-based players were largely the first to enter and develop Africa’s technology market, Chinese players have also increasingly taken a deeper interest in the continent and have the advantage of coming from an emerging market themselves, therefore putting themselves in a better position to understand the challenges faced by tech players in the continent.

Most leading tech players are looking to build their presence in the African markets. Their success depends on how well they can mold their business models to tackle the local market complexities in addition to aligning their product/service offerings with the diverse needs of the local population. While partnering with a local player may enable companies to gain a better understanding of the market potential and limitations, it is equally imperative to identify and partner with the right player, who is in line with the company’s vision and has the required expertise in the field – a task challenging at times in the African markets.

While global tech companies are stirring up the African markets with the technologies and solutions they bring along, a lot is also happening in the local African tech-based start-ups scene, which is receiving an increasing amount of investment from VCs across the world. In the future, these start-ups may become potential acquisition targets for large global players or pose stiff competition to them, either across the continent or in smaller, regional markets.

It is clear that the technological wave has hit Africa, changing the continent’s face. Most African countries, being emerging economies in their formative period, offer a great potential of embracing the new technologies without the struggle of resisting to adopt the new solutions or the problem of fit with legacy systems. It is too early to announce Africa the upcoming leader in emerging technologies, considering the groundwork and investments the continent requires for that to happen, however, Africa has emerged as the next frontier for tech companies, which are causing a digital revolution in the continent as we speak.

Medical Devices
by EOS Intelligence EOS Intelligence No Comments

India and China Make Space for Domestic Medical Devices

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Medical device industries in India and China have long been dominated by international players, especially when it comes to high-end devices. High investment requirement, long gestation period on ROI, limited support from the government, and relatively low demand and awareness about medical procedures have resulted in limited domestic investments. However, the industry has been evolving as more and more local players are realizing the scope of this high-potential market that is still in its nascent growth stage in India and China. Moreover, increased government support is further expected to boost indigenous production in the industry.

Similar market structures, a whopping difference in size

While the medical device sector in China is far ahead of that of India (with respect to sales, number of players, and investment), they both have a similar market structure, i.e. being dominated by large multinational players, who have built strong relationships with large hospitals, healthcare organizations, and influencers.

Very few local players have had any significant presence in this industry, and those that did hold some share in the market, limited their focus to the low-investment, low-price product range. However, with healthcare spending in the two countries rising significantly, more and more domestic players are entering and expanding into this space.

India’s healthcare industry is poised to reach US$280 billion by 2020 registering a CAGR of 15% during 2016-2020, while China’s healthcare spending is projected to reach US$1 trillion by 2020, growing at a CAGR of about 12% during the decade.

The rise in healthcare spending in both countries is underpinned by rising disposable income, availability and growing awareness about medical care, expansion of health insurance coverage, rising burden of lifestyle diseases and increased stress levels, as well as ageing population (especially in China).

In addition to this, the governments in both countries are providing instrumental support to companies interested and engaged in medical device manufacturing on domestic soil.

Government takes initiative to promote Indian domestic manufacturing

India’s medtech market, which was valued at close to US$4 billion (INR 260.5 billion) in 2015 is expected to reach about US$8 billion (INR 550.4 billion) by 2020, registering a CAGR of 16.1% during 2015-2020, which is significantly higher than the global industry growth of about 4-6%.

Although about 65-70% of the market value is characterized by imports, the current government’s initiatives in the sector (including the Make in India initiative) are expected to reduce the country’s dependency on imports in the medium-to-long term. Some of the initiatives undertaken by the government include allowing 100% FDI in the sector, setting up medical technology and devices parks across selected states to bring down indigenous manufacturing costs by as much as 30%, developing two testing and quality certification labs aimed at monitoring and improving quality of manufactured devices, and issuing Medical Device Rules 2017, which promote domestic manufacturing.

Before the Medical Device Rules 2017, medical devices were regulated as drugs and this resulted in several regulatory bottlenecks with regards to medtech manufacturing. The new set of rules ease the process of obtaining licenses and undertaking clinical trials, encourage self-compliance, and promote a single-window digital platform for the processing and easy tracking of applications and licenses for import, manufacture, sale/distribution, and clinical investigation of medical devices. In addition, the new medical device rules classify medical devices into four categories based on the risks these devices may pose, in line with global standards for classifying and registering medical devices.

In addition to this, the government also corrected the inverted tax structure faced by the industry in the past (i.e. import of finished goods attracted lower duty compared with import of raw materials for domestic manufacturing). Under the 2016-2017 budget, the government relaxed import duty on components and raw materials required to manufacture medical devices to 2.5% and provided full exemption from additional customs duty (SAD). Further, it increased duty on import of finished medical devices from 5% to 7.5% (in addition to imposing an additional duty of 4% on medical devices by withdrawing exemptions.)

While the move of reducing duty on raw materials has been appreciated by the industry, the rise in duty of imported medical devices has met with mixed reviews. India is highly import-dependent with regards to medical devices and a rise in duty on most categories will make medical care more expensive for the consumer.

Further, in June 2017, the union cabinet announced a US$250 million initiative as a part of the National Biopharma Mission to fund bio-tech start-ups in the field of medical devices, bio-therapeutics, etc. The government is also looking to encourage innovation in this space by setting up R&D incubation centers in association with leading research institutions in this field.

Apart from easing the supply side, the government’s initiatives, such as Free Diagnostics Service Initiative also play a vital role in boosting the demand for medical devices (especially in-vitro devices) in the country. Through this initiative, the government, under the National Health Mission aims at providing a minimum set of diagnostics to the underprivileged population in the country.

In addition to this, the program has worked on devising an integrated approach to combat prevalent non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and cancer by undertaking year-round screening and testing. This will result in large government orders for IVDs and other medical devices.

Another initiative undertaken by the government to both support the domestic industry and ensure a more widespread reach of medical devices has been price capping of coronary stents and orthopedic implants. Observing the huge distributor margins on these medical devices, the government undertook a bold step to cap the prices at which stents and knee implants can be sold in India.

Prior to the price control, the average retail price for a bare metal stent was about US$700, while that for a drug-eluting stent was about US$1,800-2,000. In February 2017, the government fixed a ceiling price of ~US$106 (INR 7,260) for bare metal stents and ~US$431 (INR 29,600) for drug-eluting stents.

In a similar move, the government capped prices for knee implants in August 2017. Knee implants, which ranged from ~US$2,308-US$13,121 (INR 158,300 – 900,000) were limited to ~US$791-1,661 (INR 54,270-113,950). In mid-2017, the government published a list of 19 medical devices (including catheters, heart valves, other orthopedic implants, etc.) that will be monitored for pricing, thus similar price capping may be expected for other devices as well.

Large players may withdraw their latest generation products from India, while Indian players will focus only on cost-effective products instead of innovations.

While the intent for the price capping is noble and will provide a boost to the domestic manufacturers who are better equipped at producing low-priced products, several leading international companies, such as Abbott Vascular and Medtronic, have criticized the decision and submitted applications to increase the ceiling price for the premium quality products or allow them to withdraw the products from the Indian market (as per the government’s rules, no manufacturer can withdraw their products from the market for a period of 12 months from the date of the price ceiling without prior approval from the government). This may be detrimental to the overall industry as large players may withdraw their latest generation products from India in the long run, while Indian players will focus only on cost-effective products instead of innovations.

Indian domestic players might go beyond high-volume low-end products

The Indian medical device market is largely import driven with a very fragmented domestic players landscape. While there are around 800 local medical device manufacturers across the country, only 10% have a turnover of more than ~US$7.3 million (INR 500 million).

The small-scale domestic players focus primarily on the consumables and disposables segment of the medical device industry, which include high-volume low-end products such as syringes, needles, and catheters.

The patient aids segment, including mostly hearing aids and pacemakers, is largely import dependent.

While the equipment and instruments segment and the implants segment are largely dominated by foreign players, they have recently seen an influx of local players that have customized their offerings to the Indian market. Karnataka-based Remidio Innovative Solutions has come up with a retinal imaging system, wherein the fundus of the eye connects to a mobile phone camera to take pictures of the retina to detect diabetic neuropathy. The device can also be used in remote areas and the images and results can be shared in real time on the treating doctor’s phone. Similarly, Karnataka-based Tricog Health Services has developed a cloud-based ECG machine for faster diagnosis. Several other players include Sattva, Cardiotrack, Forus Health, etc.

Understanding the needs and price-sensitivity of the Indian market, several leading global players have also created customized offerings for Indian consumers. For instance, GE Healthcare has come up with a compact CT scanner, which consumes less power, while Skanray Technologies has developed affordable X-ray imaging systems to meet the Indian needs.

We can expect a transition in the domestic sector, which will not only focus on high-volume low-end products but also look at entering the high-end innovative segment offering more affordable and locally customized solutions.

 Since the Indian government has fixed the inverted duty structure and provided other instrumental support to the domestic sector, we can expect a huge transition in the industry, which will not only focus on high-volume low-end products but also look at entering the high-end innovative segment offering more affordable and locally customized solutions. This may eventually result in a phase of consolidation, with foreign market leaders absorbing several innovative Indian start-ups and established players.

Medical Devices – India and China Make Space for Domestic Players

Chinese government also focuses on aiding local producers

China’s medical device market is the third largest globally, after the USA and Japan, and is expected to surpass Japan to become the second largest by 2020. In 2017, the industry was valued at US$58.6 billion, maintaining a double-digit growth over the previous three years.

Similar to the Indian market, the Chinese medical device sector continues to be dominated by foreign players through imports or their locally manufactured products. However, the market is also characterized by the presence of several local players (though smaller in size), especially in the drug-eluting stents, IVDs, and orthopedics segments.

While the foreign players hold the major chunk of innovative medical devices, the government has been taking several and significant steps to promote local companies. The government requires international players to have local legal entities in China for registration and licensing, thus China cannot serve only as an export market.

Another such major step is the regulatory proceedings under Order 650, which mandate clinical trials in China for all class II and III medical devices, with few exceptions. This prolongs the period for obtaining a license to 3-5 years and adds close to US$1-1.5 million (CNY 7-10 million) in costs. However, it has introduced a shorter channel, called the Green Channel, which provides a fast track review option. While the government introduced this to foster domestic innovation, foreign players can use it too. To be eligible for the Green Channel, the device must have a Chinese patent and it must be an innovative product with design progress and records. Products qualifying for the Green Channel are given priority in the registration review and are exempt from the US$90,000 registration fee.

In 2016, the government introduced a second priority review system for certain breakthrough products. Under this fast track channel, the need for a lengthy pre-qualification application process was further eliminated.

The government’s guidelines in its new healthcare reform called The Healthcare Reform 2020 also aim at reducing the share of imported medical devices and promoting locally produced counterparts. Several state-based medical tenders differentiate between local and imported products, giving preference to the former. Moreover, in some tenders a further distinction is made between domestic and foreign-owned local manufacturers. Thereby foreign companies that buy-out local companies to get an easier access into China are also considered as foreign players.

Under its Made in China 2025 plan, the government has also focused on domestic development and manufacturing of high-end and innovative medical devices. These devices include imaging equipment, medical robots, fully degradable vascular stents, and other high-caliber medical devices. The government aims to boost local production of such innovative and high-value devices by supporting the R&D infrastructure and manufacturing capabilities of local players. The government also provides extension of tax benefits for a period of three years if the investment made is used towards the development of medical devices.

Moreover, under the initiative, the government has aimed at increasing the use of locally produced devices by hospitals to 50% by 2020 and 70% by 2025. To pursue this goal, in September 2017, the Sichuan province mandated the use of locally-made devices in hospitals across 15 categories including respirators, PET, and CT scanners.

Just like India, China is also focusing on combating high distribution costs of medical devices, which in turn will make their prices more affordable for the general population. However, instead of capping prices, the government has introduced a Two Invoice System. The system limits the number of invoices between a supplier and the hospital to only two – the first invoice would be from the manufacturer/trading company to a government-appointed supplier/distributor (GAS) and the second invoice will be from the supplier to the hospital. This will eliminate most links in the non-transparent and fragmented distribution network in the Chinese medical device sector, which encompassed several distributors, sub-distributors, agents, etc. (the sub-distributors were engaged due to their personal and long-standing relationships with a set of hospitals). This new system is expected to reduce the corruption level by reducing the number of intermediaries and in turn improving efficiency and reducing prices for the patients.

Chinese players dominate several narrow industry segments

China’s medical device industry is dominated primarily by international players, especially with regards to high-end and innovative devices. Having said that, there are a lot of upcoming local players, although, most of them are still limited to the high-volume low-technology segments.

However, local Chinese players have managed to dominate several narrow industry segments, such as drug eluting stents, which is dominated by three domestic companies, namely Biosensors International, Lepu Medical, and MicroPort. Similarly, local players have managed to capture a significant share of the digital x-ray market, which was dominated by foreign players a few years back.

The orthopedic sector is also characterized by the presence of several large and small local players while a few dominating local players (Trauson, Kanghui, and Montage) have also been acquired by leading international players (Stryker, Medtronic, and Zimmer, respectively). Mindray and Microport, two of the largest Chinese medtech players (who have also successfully internationalized), have strong hold on the country’s patient monitoring equipment and orthopedic segment, respectively.

Moreover, while foreign companies enter the Chinese market to cater to the grade-3 hospitals and the high-end segment, the local players focus primarily on the grade-2 hospitals’ value segment (i.e. products that may not have as many functionalities but serve the basic need). The products in the value segment are more localized in terms of both need and pricing. Several international companies, such as Siemens, Philips, and GE, have also modified their product offerings and have come up with a lower-end range of devices to capture this market (as per experts, the value segment has the potential of becoming much larger in comparison with the high-end segment over the coming years).

Leading Chinese medical device companies are investing heavily in their R&D to move up the value chain with more innovative and high-segment products. Therefore, in the coming years, one can expect intense competition in the Chinese medical device sector.

Similarly, leading Chinese medical device companies are investing heavily in their R&D to move up the value chain with more innovative and high-segment products. Therefore, in the coming years, one can expect intense competition in the Chinese medical device sector, which may also lead to some consolidation. With growing government support to local companies as well as their ease to localize, it is expected that the domestic players will provide a stiff competition to international players unless the latter take action soon.

 

EOS Perspective

While the governments in both countries are taking significant and constructive steps to increase the reach of the medtech industry as well as boost domestic manufacturing, it is too far-fetched to believe that this will uproot the leading global players from the market. However, that being said, in case global companies such as GE, Siemens, and Philips do not continue to customize and localize their offerings as per the changing needs of these markets, they will definitely lose market share to domestic players.

If global companies do not continue to customize and localize their offerings, they will definitely lose market share to domestic players.

Moreover, with the upcoming regulatory changes, support to local production, and overall surge in demand (especially from tier-2 and tier-3 cities in India and grade-2 hospitals in China), the sector is likely to undergo a phase of consolidation in both countries.

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Driving Down Healthcare Costs with AR and VR Technology

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Augmented Reality (AR) delivers digital components atop an existing reality in order to make it more meaningful and interactive, while Virtual Reality (VR) enables immersive simulation of real-life setting or environment. AR and VR have wide-reaching applications in healthcare, from treatment and therapy to training and education. Though AR and VR have promising applications in healthcare, are these technologies prime for widespread adoption? This will largely depend on how effective these technologies are in relation to its cost of investment. Some of the AR and VR solutions standout to bring in significant cost savings.

In 2015, based on analysis of 80,000 surgical cases (retrieved from 2010 National Inpatient Sample, USA), Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine estimated that if all US hospitals increased the number of minimally-invasive procedures by 50%, nearly 3,600 complications could be avoided and hospital stays could be cut by 144,863 patient days, resulting in total cost savings of about US$288 million annually.

Augmented reality can offer higher accuracy

Despite such evident advantages, minimally-invasive surgeries are not as common as traditional approaches, because they require high precision and accuracy – and that is exactly where AR can be useful. For instance, Philips, a Dutch medical technology company, developed a real-time imaging solution which allows projection of high-resolution 3D image of the patient’s spine and a fully-automatic AR navigation system which guides the surgeon to plan the optimal device path, and subsequently place pedicle screws. The first pre-clinical study on the technology showed that the use of AR technology resulted in 85% accuracy as compared to 64% accuracy in case of conventional techniques. Using AR technology, doctors can perform minimally-invasive surgical procedures with high level of precision and efficiency, while minimizing mistakes and errors, thus reducing the preventable costs.

The first pre-clinical study on the technology showed that the use of AR technology resulted in 85% accuracy as compared to 64% accuracy in case of conventional techniques.

Remote mentoring and assistance delivered through augmented reality

Tele-mentoring is another practical application of AR which can bring considerable cost savings. In some complex cases, the locally available healthcare professionals are not skilled and experienced enough to carry out the procedure and experts from different cities or countries need to be called in to perform the treatment, and this involves a lot of time and costs. There are certain AR platforms that allow experts from remote locations to virtually join a surgical procedure. Using Google Glass or tablet, a real-time projection of the remotely located expert’s hands could be overlaid onto the local surgeon’s field of sight during the procedure.

In 2016, as a part of ongoing neurosurgical collaboration between Children’s of Alabama Hospital (USA) and Children’s Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), Virtual Interactive Presence and Augmented Reality (VIPAR) telecommunication system was implemented at both hospitals to provide intraoperative assistance. The cost of setting up the hardware, software, and internet connection (for one year) was around US$2,500. This is far less in comparison to the cost of the American experts’ travel and stay in Vietnam. For instance, the expense of sending a team of three doctors from the USA to Vietnam for 14 days could total to around US$12,500.

Virtual reality could be an alternative to opioids

VR therapy is proving to be effective in providing relief from pain. Several studies have suggested that parts of the brain linked to pain-somatosensory cortex and the insula are less active when patients are distracted by an immersive experience created by VR technology, thereby reducing the pain. A clinical study by AppliedVR, a US-based company building VR platform for use in healthcare, suggested that VR therapy was effective in reducing pain by 52%.

This can prove to be a breakthrough in the field of pain management, and possibly reduce the opioid prescription. High-income countries such as the USA, Canada, UK, and Australia are struggling with the opioid crisis. Although, the cost of opioids is relatively low, the resulting addiction problems and drug overdose deaths lead to high societal and economic costs. For instance, the economic cost of the opioid crisis in the USA in 2015 was estimated at US$504 billion (85% of these costs were associated with fatalities resulting from overdose). This was equivalent to about 2.8% of GDP of the country that year. For countries such as the USA, where opioid epidemic is declared as a public health emergency, there is a high demand for non-addictive, less harmful alternative pain therapy such one delivered through as VR.

The economic cost of the opioid crisis in the USA in 2015 was estimated at US$504 billion, equivalent to 2.8% of GDP of the country. For such countries, there is a high demand for non-addictive, less harmful alternative pain therapy such as one delivered through VR.

Virtual visualization can reduce the cost of training

VR-based medical training through immersive visualizations is proven to be more effective than conventional teaching methods. In 2015, Miami Children’s Health System claimed that the medical professionals could retain as much as 80% of the information from a VR training session, compared to 20% retention level with traditional teaching methods.

VR can also help to significantly reduce medical training costs. For instance, elderly care facilities in the USA spend on average US$3,000 per employee to teach tracheal insertion through traditional methods; however, Next Galaxy, a US-based company, developed a VR software that will bring down the cost of training per employee to US$40. This VR software uses leap motion force feedback technology which enables the medical professionals to sense when the procedure is going wrong. As a result, this tool can create a realistic scenario, and medical professionals can have nearly hands-on experience of performing the procedure in a safe and controlled training environment, without risking the life of a patient, thus saving costs incurred in potential litigations.

EOS Perspective

AR and VR are among the next-generation technologies with the potential to transform healthcare. There is a consensus amongst analysts that a healthy growth of the global AR and VR in healthcare market can be expected over the coming years. For instance, a research company MarketsandMarkets estimated the market size at US$769.2 million in 2017, with forecast growth at a CAGR of 36.6% to reach US$4,997.9 million by 2023. Similarly, another research firm, Key Market Insights, expects the market to reach to US$5.6 billion by 2022. Several clinical studies indicate that innovative techniques powered by AR and VR are more efficient and effective over conventional methods, thus spurring the interest of private companies and in turn, expanding the market space.

Though AR and VR technologies offer significant opportunities for cost savings, the cost of investment in such new and emerging technologies is also an essential point of consideration.

There is high uptake of VR applications that are compatible with consumer-grade VR headsets such as Google Cardboard, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, etc. These devices have already reached mainstream use. Moreover, as the technology matures, the competition is increasing, further driving down the price of the devices; for instance, in 2017, Oculus Rift (headset with motion sensor controller) was priced at US$399, half of its launch price in 2016. Increasing use of more affordable consumer-grade VR devices for healthcare applications will further bring down the cost of investment, thereby driving adoption of the VR technology in the sector.

Increasing use of more affordable consumer-grade VR devices for healthcare applications will further bring down the cost of investment, thereby driving adoption of the VR technology in the sector.

While AR headsets and smart glasses such as Microsoft HoloLens and Google Glass are still in trial version, some of the AR applications can be experienced on any smartphone/tablet without the need of headset or controllers, thus making it more accessible and affordable; for instance, EyeDecide, developed by OrcaMD, is an AR-based mobile app that simulates patient’s vision to demonstrate their actual medical condition. Such applications, which are priced as low as US$1.99 to US$4.99, can be widely used to enhance patient experience.

Healthcare organizations could leverage AR and VR technology to improve efficiency and quality of service and enhance patient care while cutting costs. Moreover, as these technologies are reaching mainstream, the cost of investment is expected to go down. Thus, AR and VR technologies are proving to deliver more value while reducing overall costs.

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Is Technology the Solution to the Next Food Crisis?

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The UN estimates rapid population growth with additional 2-3 billion people globally by 2050. To feed this swelling population, food production needs to scale up by 70%, otherwise we are likely to be at risk of a global food crisis. With resources becoming scarce and climate change diminishing crop production by 2% per decade, food production methods need radical transformation and technology could be the possible solution to it. Using technology in farms and fields holds extraordinary promise of helping the agriculture sector become more efficient, productive, and sustainable.

Population increase, resource limitations, and climate change are putting pressure on farmers to produce more with less. To boost production it is essential to efficiently manage farm inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides, optimize sowing and harvesting cycles, monitor field data (soil condition, plant stress, etc.) for improved crop yield, among others. However, managing these inputs is cumbersome and laborious without consistent and precise monitoring. Unfortunately, many farmers still rely on guess work and traditional processes instead of actual data to make all farming decisions. Technology could prove useful by helping farmers to closely monitor all farm activities and take informed data-driven decisions to improve production levels.

Technology can offer relief to pressures in agriculture

Emerging technologies such as weather tracking, robotics, and Internet of Things (IoT) can consistently monitor every aspect of agriculture such as soil fertility, health of farm animals, temperature and humidity conditions, optimal time to sow and harvest, schedule chemical application on fields, analyze irrigation requirements, among several other functions.

Weather forecast-based predictive modelling

Weather is a crucial determinant to ascertain the best time to sow, fertilize, spray, irrigate, and harvest crops. About 90% of crops losses are due to weather events and 25% of those losses could be avoided by using weather forecast-based predictive modelling on farms. Integrating weather forecast models with farming practices could enable better decision-making and improve crop yield. Companies such as John Deere, Ignitia, etc., already offer comprehensive weather-based farming solutions.

Robotics

Robotics is another emerging technology gaining traction in the agriculture sector. With robots capable of executing all functions from sowing to harvesting, they could easily replace human labor in the foreseeable future, particularly, at a time when some countries are facing labor shortage. For instance, in 2017, the UK suffered from 20% shortfall in migrant labors, which was mostly blamed on the Brexit vote that has made the UK unattractive for overseas workers to seek employment. The labor shortage is likely to get worse in 2018, making harvesting at labor-intensive vegetable and fruit fields difficult. Hence, some farms across the UK are considering to employ farm robots for vegetable and fruit picking.

Robots are also far more efficient than human labor, which is the key requirement to boost food production – each Harvest CROO Robotics’ robot (made by a US-based company that develops robots for the agriculture sector) is capable of harvesting eight acres in a day, which is equivalent to the work of 30 human pickers.

Internet of Things

Further, IoT has gained significance across several industries and has now entered the farms. IoT is turning farms into a mesh of smart sensors connected in a network, with the help of which every granular detail of crop, soil, livestock, or farm can be analyzed, thus, enabling farmers to devise smart cropping techniques and farming methods. IoT can streamline farming processes, reduce water consumption, and improve production and bottom lines.

EOS Perspective

Eventually, the growing population will put pressure on food supply. In such a scenario, digital farming is the best possible solution to escape the looming food crisis. Technology promises improved communication systems, precise monitoring devices, recommendations that could improve all processes between sowing and harvesting, and efficient livestock monitoring, among others, that could boost agricultural yields, reduce food wastage, decrease the inputs or resources needed per unit of output, and ensure sustainable farming practices.

However, most farmers have not adopted digital farming solutions and the use of technology is far from being a mass phenomenon yet. Cost is the most significant barrier to adoption, with most farms unable to bear the high upfront costs. Another common challenge is the lack of robust communication and internet network in rural areas as well as the absence of awareness and skills among farmers to apply technologies in farms.

Most farmers have not adopted digital farming solutions and the use of technology is far from being a mass phenomenon yet. Cost is the most significant barrier to adoption.

Consequently, the development of digital farming will require commitment and intervention by governments across the world, to offer incentives and cover the substantial start-up costs. Fortunately, few organizations have already started undertaking initiatives to tackle challenges. For instance, Mimosa Technology (a Vietnam-based IoT solution provider for agriculture sector) leases IoT-based hardware devices to farmers’ cooperatives in Vietnam to lessen the cost burden for smallholder farmers.

Initiatives are also being taken to ensure network connectivity and improve digital literacy in remote/rural areas – for example, governments of Thailand, India, or the UK, to name a few, are planning to boost digital connectivity in rural areas.

Eventually, technological innovations can be expected to make farming practices precise and to improve output. The use of digital farming solutions is an answer to the probable food crisis but for it to succeed, a mass adoption of technology across farms is a necessity. With growing awareness of benefits of automation in fields and efforts made by various organizations and governments to overcome challenges, digital farming would sooner than later transform the agriculture sector.

Brief description of companies and projects:

  • CropX: A USA-based agriculture-analytics company
  • CLAAS: A Germany-based agricultural machinery manufacturer
  • SmaXtec: An Austria-based provider of solutions to monitor livestock
  • Farmers Edge: A Canada-based company offering digital solutions for agriculture
  • The Weather Company: A USA-based weather forecasting and information technology company, a part of IBM
  • John Deere: A USA-based manufacturer of machinery for agriculture, construction, and forestry
  • Ignitia: A Sweden-based weather forecasting company
  • Robot Thorvald (to be launched): A robot developed by Saga Robotics, a Norway-based manufacturer of robots
  • Deepfield robotics: Robots developed by Bosch, a Germany-based engineering and electronics company
  • Hands Free Hectare: A project developed by Harper Adams University and Precision Decisions
  • Robot Agbot: A robot designed and built by QUT (an Australian university) with support from the Queensland Government
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Infographic: China Going Cashless – What Does It Mean for Consumers, Trade, and Economy?

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China is heading fast towards a cashless society. The immense adoption and use of smartphone apps that provide mobile-payment services for buying goods and services have transformed how payments are made, eliminating the need to carry cash and reducing the dependence on credit and debit cards, which are already close to scarce in China. Easy access to smartphones and lack of alternative non-cash payment options, low penetration of credit cards and tedious debit card payment process that includes authentication via messages and codes, have led to the growth of online payments in the country.

This cashless payment revolution is expected to continue and grow, thus impacting the way businesses function, consumers shop, and China’s economy rolls.

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Fitness Apps Thrive in Spite of Issues, But for How Long?

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Global fitness app market was worth US$930 million in 2016, expected to grow at a CAGR of 23.6% during 2016-2021 to reach US$2.7 billion. This growth can be attributed to drivers such as steady increase in smartphone adoption, affordable costs of mobile apps, as well as growing health awareness among consumers, including smartphone users. Regardless of how steady growth the market is registering, its expansion may hit a roadblock due to low product differentiation in a fiercely competitive market and unclear privacy policies that may cause wariness among consumers.

Fitness apps are becoming a new way to stay fit for smartphone and tablet users. During 2014-2016, fitness apps users have greatly increased in number, which led to fitness apps usage increase of over 330% in that period. A major driver of this growth is the fact that many fitness apps are highly engaging, according to a 2016 research conducted by Apptentive, a mobile customer experience and engagement software measuring the percentage of customers who retained an app for a certain period of time. In the health and fitness category, an average of 75% of users retained an app for at least 28 days, positioning the category as one of the top performers among news, finance, music, and shopping apps.

The high engagement of fitness apps is partially due to these apps providing users with a constantly-updated overview of their performance details and general wellness, which offers continuous motivation. This certainly benefits fitness apps growth and expansion in the market by not only attracting new users but also keeping existing users as loyal customers (at least to a certain extent).

Another driver for the fitness apps market growth is the cost-effectiveness of these apps, especially in comparison with typical gym membership fees. While a local gym in a city such as New York may charge around US$130 a month (plus a sign-up fee in some cases), fitness apps offer basic training routines, tracking location, and a calorie counter free of charge. Most fitness and health apps also offer an upgraded version with extra features, such as personal trainer, at prices ranging between US$2.99 a month and US$49.99 for an annual subscription.

These drivers bring about a favorable market environment for fitness apps to thrive, further underpinned by an estimated 2.1 billion smartphone users globally in 2016, a strong internet penetration – 87.4% in the USA, 73.1% in Europe, 54.3% in Latin America, and 52.3% in Asia, and a growing health awareness among an increasing number of people.

What may seem as a challenge is the fact that many fitness apps do not manage to stand out in the vast pool of apps, resulting in lack of product differentiation in the market. Most fitness apps offer very similar features – workout routines adjusted to the user’s level of fitness, sharing workout results online, etc., with focus on increasing user’s engagement with the app. Although this last point seems to have been achieved as fitness app users seem to be generally loyal to one app, a low product differentiation means low switching barriers for the users over long term, while limited innovation in introduction of new features can potentially hinder fitness app market growth.

Another challenge for fitness app developers is to improve the apps’ privacy policies. Fitness apps collect a gamut of sensitive, personal information about the users and require the geo-location feature to be enabled during workouts, meaning user’s location can be pinpointed at any time while using the app. Fitness apps mostly fail to clearly specify how this information will be handled. According to a report published by the Future of Privacy Forum (FPF), USA-based think tank and advocacy group, 30% out of the top paid and free health and fitness apps found in the App Store and Google Play in 2016 lagged behind in providing basic transparency about the app’s privacy terms. In other words, there is a probability that personal user information logged on the apps could be misused, weakening consumer’s trust, which could translate into users choosing not to use fitness apps to exercise, as their awareness of privacy issues increases.

Such lack of transparency from fitness app providers may cause users to grow wary of using the apps to track their workouts and to introduce personal information regarding their health. This can turn out to be a considerable problem for the app companies, as the key advantage and the selling point of their products is personalized data analysis, training plans, performance charts, etc., for which it is essential that the user allows the app to gather their personal health and workout input data. Without this, the use of these apps is virtually pointless.

EOS Perspective

Fitness apps have proven to be highly engaging causing consumers to rapidly adopt the ’anytime, anywhere’ way of exercising and to continue using these apps through extended periods of time. While convincing potential users to start using any fitness app does not seem to be a problem and customer acquisition does not pose a major challenge in general for the industry as a whole, it appears that low product differentiation is the key obstacle for individual developers to get their products to stand out in the jumble of similar apps, and this lack of differentiation might be the factor to hamper fitness app market growth.

Some app providers seem to be noticing this, however they are trying to tackle this issue by doing everything but truly differentiating their products, and instead attempt to outdo their competitors by trying to shout loud about their own apps. As many apps lack differentiation and tend to melt into one vast pool of similar apps, fitness app developers are trying to make their products be more heard and visible using social medial to gain a competitive advantage.

One such case is the Sweat app, belonging to the Australian international fitness figure Kayla Itsines, who has been using social media extensively – mainly Instagram and Facebook – as a means of promotion for her app. By implementing a well-designed and aggressive social media marketing strategy, the Sweat app spread around 195 countries engaging 11 million users in 2017 alone. In that same year, the app registered US$100 million in revenue. The use of social media (hashtags, motivational photos, short videos, reposting before and after pictures of app users who had made remarkable progress) granted major visibility in the market and an increase in new subscriptions, without the need for actual innovation and truly unique selling proposition.

A lot of fitness apps offer user workouts based on generic information introduced by the user (e.g. weight, height, age) and data measured by GPS, accelerometer, or gyroscope, however lack the ability to register the body’s real-time performance, which has an impact on the accuracy of the gathered data and recommendations. This gap offers a good opportunity to differentiate and the app developers should try to align their applications with current trends such as the increasing popularity of wearable devices and smart garment.

Fitness apps companies might want to continue to seek to collaborate with garment industry players to develop smart garment – a piece of clothing such as a sport bra with conductive threads woven into the fabrics to work wirelessly with a smartphone. Smart threads in the fabric are capable of reading user’s biometrics, for instance heart rate, body temperature, and dehydration, among others that otherwise a smartphone would be incapable of registering on its own. By integrating the smart garment with a fitness app, the latter can use the real-time data collected on the body’s actual performance to accurately monitor workout sessions, giving a range of possibilities to use this data to differentiate the service offered by the app. As a result, the end product could stand out in the vast pool of apps while facilitating the user to efficiently reach their personal goals. It is a path for app developers to consider, as the growth of standard, smartphone-based apps is surely going to be limited.

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Infographic: Understanding the Cost Dynamics of 3D Printed Drugs

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Medical industry needs no introduction to 3D printing technology, which has found usage in applications varying from custom prosthetics to surgical procedures. And with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approving the sale of Spritam (in 2016 across USA), a drug used in preventing seizures, produced by Aprecia Pharmaceuticals using 3D printing, this commercial use of 3D printing technology embodies a momentous development in the field of printing drugs. The deployment of this technology offers certain benefits, but also comes at a cost, and affects the cost dynamics of producing a drug.

Cost savings offered by 3D printing technology are massive. Making drugs using printers will gradually reduce the processing equipment required, allowing the final product to be printed on one versatile machine, saving thousands of dollars. Going a step ahead, pharma companies will provide the base products for printing of the medicines at clinics and pharmacies, which means that the investment in production and storage facilities at the pharma company’s end will decline as the physical making of the drug will be shifted closer to the end-user. The technology will also help save on packaging and labelling costs along with bringing down logistics expenses.

However, as 3D printing capabilities develop further and as the cost of printing drugs falls, increasing easy accessibility to these drugs, it will become imperative to address safety and regulatory concerns associated with this technology.

While making drugs with 3D printing technology could be a game changer for the medical industry, it also comes with a potential threat of counterfeit and illegal drugs. As drugs production will be shifted from centralized location of pharma companies, which are able to ensure more controlled and supervised production processes, drugs will be printed at numerous clinics and pharmacies, and hence strict regulations need to be adopted and methods of production need to be appropriately controlled. Unified safety procedures and quality control measures need to be developed so that patients can be assured of the quality of the products.

The immense potential offered by this technology is increasingly materializing through commercialization in developed markets. However, as massive financial inputs from pharma companies paired with research grants and support by governments are still required, it is fair to believe that this technology is still far out from the reach of the less developed parts of the world, at least in the foreseeable future.

3D printed drugs

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