Samsung Plunges into the Medical Device Market

A 19-panel blood-testing gadget that is smaller, quicker, and less expensive than current hospital-targeted offerings represents the Samsung (Seoul, Republic of Korea) debut into the world of medical devices.

The Samsung IVD-A10A measures levels of blood glucose, cholesterol levels, and 17 other substances in the blood used in the diagnosis of heart, liver, and kidney diseases. Future additional accessories will be used to perform cancer marker immunoassays and diagnose infectious diseases, based on clinical chemistry tests of various metabolites. According to the company, the device takes only 12 minutes to complete a standard blood test, compared to two to three days with traditional equipment. Samsung, which developed the product following a four year, US$245-million investment, will partner with Choongwae Pharma Corporation (Seoul, South Korea), a major Korean pharmaceutical manufacturer, to exclusively sell the device to hospitals throughout the country.

The new device is Samsung's first move into the medical equipment market, representing a commitment to invest $9.85 billion in the healthcare business by 2020, with the goal of achieving $8.34 billion in annual sales that year. Samsung sees medical equipment as one of five new growth drivers for the company, along with solar cells, rechargeable cells for hybrid electric vehicles, light emitting diode (LED) technologies, and biopharmaceuticals, all intended to eventually reduce the company's reliance on the production of TV's, cellular phones, memory chips, and displays.

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