Maetrics Release: Emerging Markets Offer Growth Potential To UK Medical Device Industry

Complex compliance regulations seen as a hurdle, Maetrics study shows

Nottingham (March 13, 2015) – With decreasing prices and increasing regulation, many UK medical device businesses are looking to emerging markets for growth. However, compliance issues are also problematic in those territories, according to a recent study from Maetrics, a fullservice life science consulting firm.

The medical device industry in the United Kingdom has been hit hard with spending cuts by the National Health Service and decreasing prices due in part to order pooling. Also distressing to this sector is stricter EU regulation: 61% of businesses responding to the Maetrics study cited unannounced inspections by notified bodies as a principal challenge for 2015.

With growth stymied at home, the medical device sector is looking to emerging markets for a boost. However, more than half of survey respondents said they had concerns about regulatory compliance. In addition, some 43% expressed concern about finding qualified staff for such ventures.

“This is a historic and exciting time for the industry,” said Peter Rose, managing director at Maetrics. “Emerging market expansion offers an appealing solution for businesses that are feeling under pressure in mature markets, but ensuring compliance with different regulations is going to be tough.”

Additional key findings include:

  • The introduction of Unique Device Identifiers (UDIs) will be one of the major challenges for 2015, especially for IT, according to 58% of medical device firms.

  • Product launches (48%) and new Medical Device Regulations (45%) also pose significant hurdles.

  • Across all UK healthcare and life science firms, respondents reveal lack of investment in compliance as businesses say they lack resources (68%), time (67%) and budget (65%).

  • cont’d – “Emerging markets offer growth potential for UK medical device industry”
  • 61% report difficulties with implementing regulations to their specific environment.

  • 60% say that regulations are hard to interpret and change often.


  • “Having a strong quality and compliance team, whether internally or externally through a consulting partner, is more important now than ever before,” Rose continued. “It’s clear that the key to fully leveraging the opportunities in emerging markets is confidence in interpreting and implementing

    The study, conducted by leading business analyst MindMetre, surveyed more than 50 compliance and quality management professionals from four life sciences sectors, including pharmaceutical, medical device, biotechnology and nutrition – with participants from both large corporations and small to medium enterprises (SMEs) – to determine the industry outlook, examine growth drivers and provide insight into planning and buying behaviours.

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    About Maetrics

    Maetrics is a full-service life sciences consulting firm. Founded in 1984, Maetrics has evolved to become a global force supporting a significant number of pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical and medical device firms with their most critical enterprise compliance, performance improvement, risk management, information technology and organizational change management initiatives. Our company is exclusively focused on the life science industry, enabling us to provide superior insights to our clients. Our unique business acumen and delivery model have been rewarded by repeated engagements with our client base year after year. Today, with offices throughout the United States and Europe, Maetrics is an acclaimed leader in the life science consulting field.

    About MindMetre

    MindMetre Research is a leading consumer and business analyst. The organisation has been investigating and reporting on trends in a number of fields and sectors since the late 1990s, particularly healthcare, Web technology, financial services and marketing. MindMetre research programmes are regularly conducted across the globe, embracing geographies from the Americas to the Far East. In the healthcare sector, MindMetre is particularly known for its series on healthcare financing, beginning in the early 2000s.

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