Improve Medical to establish blood collection tube materials unit
Shanghai. July 12. INTERFAX-CHINA - Guangzhou Improve Medical Instruments Co. Ltd. (Improve Medical) plans to set up a subsidiary to produce the core materials used in vacuum blood collection tubes, its flagship product, the company announced July 12.
The subsidiary will produce serum separation gel and clot activator, two major materials used in blood collection tubes, with annual capacity for 600 tons and 10,000 liters, respectively, the announcement said.
"Our production costs will be reduced by some 50 percent if we use self-made gel and clot activator," an employee close to the firm's board of directors who wished to remain anonymous told Interfax July 12.
At present, the Guangzhou City-based firm largely sources the materials from Japan's Sekisui Chemical Co. Ltd. at a price of between RMB 18 ($2.78) and RMB 20 ($3.09) per ton for separation gel, and RMB 1,800 ($278) per liter for clot activator, according to the announcement.
The subsidiary, provisionally named Nanxiong Improve Medical Technology Co. Ltd., will largely supply Improve Medical, but will also target the high-end domestic market.
Based in Guangdong Province's Nanxiong City, about 221 kilometers (137 miles) north of its parent's base in the provincial capital of Guangzhou, it will have a registered capital of RMB 25 million ($3.87 million) and is set to start production by year-end.
Needles and blood collection tubes accounted for 79 percent of Improve Medical's sales revenue in 2010, according to its annual report. The firm is listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange Growth Enterprise Market (GEM).
- MS
Edited by Orlando Bowie