All existing regulatory representatives of each TMTA member company are urged to attend. Procedurally speaking, the meeting cannot take place if less than 6 members are in attendance.  The RASIG meeting will start at 1:00 and wrap up by 3:30pm. If you already plan to attend the TMTA meeting which is taking place on the morning of that same day, just stick around after the TMTA meeting.

All members interested in attending this RASIG meeting must confirm their participation by Tuesday, November 27. All participants must fill out a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) prior to attending the meeting. This NDA can be downloaded from the TMTA website at http://www.tmta.ca/d/sig/RASIG_NDA

Join us on Dec 11 and let’s put our minds together. Come prepared with issues you wish to submit to the Chair. This is your chance to impact to future regulatory meetings and set the agenda for future issues.

 

 

Cross Border 2007:
Seeding medical technology partnerships

On hold since its last occurrence in 1999, the Cross Border Event returned to us on October 19th in lovely Niagara-on-the-Lake. Entitled "Seeding medical technology partnerships", this year's Cross Border focused on the rapidly changing global economy and its impact on Canada-US medical technology partnerships.

Industry experts, leaders and peers from Western New York and Southern Ontario spent a whole day bringing each other up to date and networking on legal, financial and technological developments shaping the medical technology landscape. Participants from government, academia and industry took turns at sharing perspectives on market forces, research funding mechanisms, investment sources, regulatory factors, partnership opportunities and research and development resources.

In addition to have plenty of opportunities to network during and between presentation sessions, attendees also had the chance to participate in a leading edge matching-making exercise aimed at furthering hands-on co-operation between enterprises on both sides of the border.

Everyone in attendance had ample proof that smart international partnerships are definitely the way of the future. Cross Border returns to us again next year. So mark your calendars- the date to remember is Friday, October 17, 2008. Since Cross Border has a tradition of alternating between Canada and the US, next year's Event will take place in Upper State New York. The actual site will be confirmed at a later date.
 

  

Medica 2007:
Another great show comes to an end

 Duesseldorf, Germany. Little is left from last week's city-swelling MEDICA 2007 trade fair. Gone are the 4,309 exhibitors including 39 from Canada. All now presumably back in their 64 home countries. Most of the city’s stylish restaurants no longer need advance booking. The cream coloured taxis have returned to their downtown stands and no longer queue up in front of Messe Duesseldorf's immense spread of 20 fairground buildings. In the fairground buildings, some workmen are still at work, demolishing the up-to-3-story high booths that filled cavernous halls to the rafters. Those are the few signs left  that the world's largest annual medical technology was ever here. All in all, this year's show hosted 137,500 visitors.

Less traffic but more focus
According to TMTA Chairman, Christian Dube “From an Ontario perspective, Medica 2007 was quite good although traffic through our booths was less than in to prior years. But those visitors that did stop by spent more quality time discussing their needs and reviewing products being featured.” Dube goes on to add that “there are times when less traffic can be an advantage since it gives everyone involved more time to focus on the  individual needs and questions of visitors.” Still according to TMTA, Medica is increasingly being taken over by Chinese companies. Says Chairman Dube, “This is something organizers need to pay attention to if they don’t want Medica to loose its distinctive European character” .

Ontario leads the way
Ontario had the largest provincial contingent registered at MEDICA this year, 16 in all. 8 of these were TMTA members. This should not come as a surprise since TMTA spent the better part of the year promoting Medica to its member companies. 

Pharmax Limited of Toronto: President Gary Hodgins felt out of sorts and out of place sequestered in Hall 7A with few leads generated on Day 1 of MEDICA. But by Day 3, he had reason to whoop it up and celebrate with three new distributors signed. No doubt having obtained CE marking for 14 of his hospital products helped. So have the times. One researcher visiting Medica was sent Hodgins way to talk to him about the frightening rise of highly resistant, skin-born bacteria that's been killing patients simply from injecting catheters. Pharmax is a TMTA member company and president Gary Hodgins is one of the members of TMTA’s Market Access Committee.

Phoenix Biomedical Products Inc . of Mississauga, Ontario: "We found this year that people were more price conscious than in the past," said Andra Iskander, head of production at Phoenix. The nearly 30-year-old company took advantage of MEDICA to introduce a new line of environmentally friendly  Star Dish petri dishes which maintain the same high standard of quality the company is known for, but cuts both the cost and waste of disposal. "With the Chinese and others now entering the marketplace, it's becoming much more competitive. We still get recognized for our quality, but now get asked very quickly: And how's your price?"

Amvex Corporation of Richmond Hill, Ontario: "We introduced our new Integrated (medical gas) Flowmeter here but even though we have a patent pending for it, it does not yet have a CE mark. So we moved it further into the background at our both," said Julia Paulsin-Manos. What got moved forward in its place were Amvex's other brightly colour-coded meters and equipment. "They caught eyes here because our competition's units are all the same bland grey. Ours are colour-coded partly to make stocking them keeping track of them easier."

Medica won't really end yet
If not all 4,309  exhibitors had a similarly fantastic experience at MEDICA this year, the chance to improve on it is not over for them. The show’s medica.de portal will stay up for almost a year. This will allow companies to keep adding company news and new product information as the occasion arises.  As far as TMTA is concerned, Medica is still a must-do event. If a company plans to export its products to the world, Medica is THE show no one can ignore. Medica is well managed and offers many opportunities. Once again  this year, everyone had a good show. All are returning to their own respective locations to start responding to the leads gathered during the week.