Originally Published EMDM
March/April 2004
A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
Why Denmark?
We decided to devote this issue’s Regional Focus section to Denmark several months ago, when we were hammering out the 2004 editorial calendar. At the time, this small nation was making big news in the medical device world.
While much of Europe was mired in the economic doldrums, Denmark was projecting sustained double-digit growth in medical device sales, according to the national industry association Medicoindustrien. Granted, the size of the Danish medical device market pales in comparison with Europe’s leading economies. Nevertheless, a 24% increase in sales of medical equipment between 2000 and 2002 (in a country other than China) demands attention. I spent a week in December visiting companies throughout Denmark and conducting interviews. My report begins on page 74.
While I was in country, the association of European chambers of commerce published a survey on companies’ economic expectations. Danish firms ranked, with Britain, as the most optimistic. So, what makes Denmark tick? There are several factors, of course, but I think the enlightened approach of the Danish device industry to R&D deserves a fair share of credit.
Medicoindustrien reports that industry has boosted its R&D expenditures by about 20% annually over the past several years. EUCOMED’s most recent Industry Profile places Denmark’s R&D spending as a percentage of sales in the upper echelon of the world’s medical technology markets. Many of the suppliers I visited share that belief in the wisdom of investing in the future.
Ferroperm, a maker of piezoelectric ceramic parts, prides itself on manufacturing components that perform precisely the way they did a decade ago. “We place great emphasis on reproducibility,” says technical director Torsten Bove. But the company is not satisfied repeating—albeit with
uncanny precision—its past achievements. It recently developed high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) materials that combine diagnostic and therapeutic applications.
A rapidly growing field, HIFU therapy can deliver treatment deep into the body while minimizing damage to surrounding tissue. According to researchers at the Center for Industrial and Medical Ultrasound at the University of Washington (Seattle, WA, USA), HIFU can be used to treat cancer. It can also stop internal bleeding by cauterizing injured organs or blood vessels. HIFU may lead to noninvasive surgery performed without anaesthetic.
Although traditional materials can be used in this application, Ferroperm claims to have developed the first piezoelectric materials optimized for use in HIFU technology.
Product Release Europe ApS, a company that provides coating services, went out on a limb when it announced that it was going to build a highly automated guidewire-coating facility. Chief technical officer Morten Saabye admits that his peers were skeptical, to say the least. But one of the company’s customers had asked Saabye if he could take on a guidewire-coating job that was then being done in the United States. The only feasible way to do that, Saabye concluded, was to automate the process as much as possible. “Labour is expensive in Denmark,” he noted. “Automation is how we can stay competitive.” The coating facility has been operating successfully since last summer. Meanwhile, a few of Saabye’s colleagues had a helping of crow smørrebrød.
Expansion is not something that is on the mind of Henrik Søbygaard. He is content to run Søbygaard Machine Design ApS out of his comfortable home office. (Some lucky visitors get to sample the cuisine of Mrs. Søbygaard, which, I’m told, merite le detour.) Søbygaard designs medical device manufacturing equipment. Being an engineer, he has a passion for building sophisticated automated assembly machines. Being a Dane, he also finds fulfillment designing simpler manual equipment for companies in the developing world.
“Denmark is a small country, as you know,” says Søbygaard. “We like to help other small countries. For me, I love to watch things develop, and help people to achieve their goals.”
That humanistic élan is also part of the Danish experience, one that facts and figures cannot sum up. And it’s one more reason why I’m looking forward to my next trip to this engaging land.
Norbert Sparrow
Copyright ©2003 European Medical Device Manufacturer
