Oct 11, 2023 – In light of the accomplishment achieved in the previous exhibit and dialogue session back in July this year, the local MedTech players had expressed their interest to be part of Ministry of Health’s (MOH) suppliers. Therefore, InvestPenang organised a subsequent session for MOH to brief the local medical device companies on the ministry’s procurement procedures for medical devices. This MOH briefing was conducted by Dato Sri’ Norazman Ayob, the Deputy Secretary-General of MOH, and his team.

In addition to Y.Bhg Dato’ Sri Norazman Ayob and his team, YB Sim Tze Tzin, Member of Parliament for Bayan Baru, Puan Salbiah Binti Yaakop, Director, Policy, Industry, International Affairs Division, Medical Device Authority Malaysia and about 15 potential buyers from private hospitals also attended this session, which was hosted by Dato’ Loo Lee Lian, CEO of InvestPenang.

The main objective of this event was to introduce our local homegrown medical devices companies to the procurement procedures implemented by MOH. This in turn opened up an alternate sales avenue to the local MedTech players and also raised awareness to MOH on the manufacturing capabilities and current offerings available locally. In addition, buyers from private hospitals were also invited to attend today’s event. This was to create a platform for the local MedTech players to market their products and network with the potential buyers from the private hospitals. 

12 homegrown local medical device companies attended today’s session namely, CCB Medical Devices, Formedic, Ideal Health Care, Leonix, Mediven, Mymac, Pentamaster MediQ, Puncak Bumi, UMediC, V3bio, Waterbay and PG Medic. Each of the companies was allocated an exhibition booth to showcase the local made MDA qualified medical devices and products to MOH team, which included orthopaedics implants (screw and plates), disposable or single use products for urology, cardiovascular, endoscope related, wound and infection control products, dental products, therapy products, patient isolation transporter, inhaler-related products, pharmaceutical and diagnostic, cleaning equipment, as well as surgical blade and instruments. 

According to GlobalData, the market size in Asia Pacific region is expected to grow at a comparatively higher compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.4% from 2022 to reach approximately USD225 billion by 2030. The growth is mainly driven by increasing prevalence of diseases, ageing population, and others, along with the increasing focus of market players to have direct presence to fulfill the demand of the patients in this region.

Housing six of the global top 30 medical device companies (by sales), Penang’s exports in professional, scientific and controlling instruments and apparatus (including medical devices) are on an upward trend, contributing about 67% on average of Malaysia’s total in the mentioned industry in 2018-2022. Penang has garnered RM5.6 billion in approved manufacturing investments in Scientific & Measuring Equipment (including medical devices) in 2018-2022, representing 46% of the country’s said total. It is on the right trajectory of becoming the MedTech hub for Asia, equivalent to the world’s top offshore MedTech hubs like Puerto Rico, Ireland and Costa Rica.

Notably, today’s event displayed the synergy between the government agencies and local hospitals in positioning Penang to be a dominant force in the MedTech industry in Asia Pacific region. At the same time, it has provided a platform for the local MedTech players to showcase their manufacturing capabilities and offerings to the market, for MOH to introduce their procurement procedure and for local hospitals to source and network with the local MedTech players.

– InvestPenang  –