New Philadelphia Start-up Helps American Healthcare Firms Tap Chinese Market

Select Greater Philadelphia -- A new Philadelphia start-up has the goal of leveraging the vast economic potential of the Chinese healthcare market. Asia Pacific Bio-Intelligence (APBI) offers small- and medium-sized pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device firms a roadmap through the business, cultural and regulatory challenges inherent in entering the fast-changing Chinese market.

“China is a highly dynamic environment,” said Seth J. Goldenberg, APBI's president. China has set a goal of universal healthcare for its enormous population (currently at almost 1.4 billion) by 2020. Presently, most quality healthcare is available in and around the urban centers, with a population of 665.5 million; the Chinese government is spending vast sums to bring comparable care to its rural areas, Goldenberg explained.

That push, coupled with a highly entrepreneurial government, a rapidly changing regulatory environment, an aging bureaucracy (and population) and an evolving approach to intellectual property, to say nothing of language and cultural differences, offers both opportunity and challenge for American firms.

“How do you navigate this in a cost-effective way? That's where we come in,” said Goldenberg.

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