Monday, April 9, 2012

Implants in China

There's a big increase in China's cochlear implant surgeries in the last couple of year. The Australian company Cochlear says, during the first 14 years it has operated in China, between 1995 and 2009, it only sold 4,000 devices. But since then, the company has sold 6,000. Authorities estimate there are some 5000 implant surgeries each year in China. The devices are supplied by Cochlear, Sonova, MED-EL and a small, Chinese company called Hangzhou Nurotron Biotechnology. Nurotron's cochlear sells its implants at about half the price of the other companies.