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EF: You have worked at Fresenius Kabi for over eleven years and enlarged your role in MedTech; how was the transition, how is MedTech included, and what does it mean to Fresenius Kabi?
CH: Shifting to Fresenius Kabi MedTech was important. We merged our Transfusion Medicine and Cell Therapies (TCT) and Infusion and Nutrition Systems (INS) segments into one entity. As a fully vertically integrated organization, I have full P&L accountability for the entire MedTech business, from R&D, production, and supply of all our MedTech product lines, up to our commercial operations. This improved our agility by increasing our decision-making process. Accountability drives each specific vertical business forward.
Fresenius Kabi has other businesses, including I.V. Generics & Fluids, Biopharma, and Nutrition. MedTech is different by nature. We supply both hardware and software components. We need a strong and reliable service network, have long-term contracts with our customers, and provide clinical education to ensure nurses and physicians are properly trained to use our equipment. The sales cycle is much longer than other businesses. All these differences led to creating a specific vertical organization for positive development. In all segments, managers are accountable for developing the portfolio and the global business.
EF: Could you elaborate on the importance of the MedTech Division to Fresenius Kabi?
CH: At Fresenius Kabi, we have a clear 3+1 strategy. We want to deliver future growth with the three growth vectors Biopharma, Nutrition, and MedTech and gain resilience in the I.V. Generics sector. I am excited to drive the profitable growth of MedTech in the new vertically integrated organization. Fresenius Kabi will achieve this by providing MedTech products and solutions that improve clinical outcomes, patient safety, and customer process efficiency.
EF: You are a German-based company with global reach. Could you elaborate on your footprint?
CH: Fresenius Kabi MedTech is geographically very well balanced. We have the same business share in the US and Canada as in Europe, about 40% in each geography, and a presence in China and other Asian countries. We have also completed some acquisitions; for instance, ten years ago, we decided to acquire Fenwal Holdings, Inc. for our transfusion and cell therapy business. We combined the Fresenius Kabi business with Fenwal Holdings, Inc. to form a leading transfusion medicine and cell therapy company. We have been very successful and have achieved a high market share and excellent growth momentum.
We plan to do the same for our Infusion and Nutrition System business, where we are leaders in Europe, the Middle East Africa, and Latin America. Currently, we have a small market share in the US, so we decided to acquire Ivenix in March 2022 to bolster the business there. We aim to become a major player in the US I.V. therapy market with Ivenix and its superior technical capabilities. In Europe, we are leaders, and we have a clear plan to be successful in the US market as well. We have invested heavily in new technologies and US-based production infrastructure; the next two or three years will be critical to gaining market share in the US and improving the service quality for our customers that goes with our product in support of patients and healthcare providers.
EF: Fresenius Kabi MedTech needs to provide great service and education on its equipment; what strategies are in place to maximize this?
CH: Our product portfolio adds a lot of value to our customer base; our plasma collection devices, infusion pumps, and other products cannot be used without proper training and clinical education. We ensure nurses, pharmacists, and physicians receive the best training to use the equipment with all its functionality. The solutions and improvements result from being close to our customers and users. In addition, we listen carefully to the salespeople to improve the product and add new technological ideas from our R&D centers. We have two R&D centers in the US, one in Germany, France, Italy, and one in China. Clinical practices can be different in America, Asia, and Europe, so listening to the local markets is very important because we modify products for them to serve local requirements best. We support our customers in the clinical outcome, improving patients' safety and making the process of our customers more efficient. We invest in software solutions to connect to hospital electronic medical records, to be paperless, and to have easy access to their system, leading to a fully web-based architecture; data can be wirelessly and bi-directionally downloaded to the infusion pumps. Our technology is efficient and easy for the nurses to use to save precious time. We pay attention to the nurses’, pharmacists’, and physicians’ work and mirror that as efficiently as possible in our workflow support of our product software.
With the current regulations in some countries regarding data protection and privacy, we lose the potential to access patient data quickly, which can sometimes be crucial for healthcare providers to decide on the right treatment. Today’s technological possibilities are enormous, and we believe there should be a way to find a middle ground to ensure data privacy and protection while taking advantage of the technology to provide a better patient outcome. I believe the current strict implementation of data privacy regulations is affecting patient safety in Germany; we could be safer, and it would be to the patient's advantage to use more technological solutions. We need to promote technical advantages and convince society and politics so the patients can benefit.
We acquired Ivenix in the US because we saw Europe lagging behind in software-based solutions. We see that software solutions are advancing faster in the US. They have the software solutions for interoperability and data integration today that we dream of having some years from now.
EF: Germany has been at the forefront of innovation before. What initiatives could be put in place to push this agenda through?
CH: Germany might not have cutting-edge software solutions today, but we have many other innovative technologies and products. Germany’s MedTech industry is historically very strong in mechanics and optics. Currently, material sciences are becoming more and more important, especially with the new focus on sustainability and environmental protection. In these areas, innovation will play a key role in the next few years. e.g., for new materials, which make overwraps unnecessary, guarantee longer shelf life and with that, we produce less waste.
EF: Fresenius Kabi is involved in social responsibility and sustainability. What initiatives do you have in Germany and at a global level?
CH: Our projects at Fresenius Kabi are spread worldwide; our approach is global and depends on the different locations. For example, our plants in the Caribbean are equipped with photovoltaic systems on top of parking areas and on rooftops of our plants, which contributes to a reduction of our energy consumption. We conduct awareness initiatives that vary depending on the region to foster social responsibility. We initiate various activities with our employees and their families such as planting trees or cleaning highways. At Fresenius Kabi, we recently established environmental protection as one additional decision criterion for new R&D projects or CAPEX investments.
EF: Fresenius Kabi’s MedTech division still pushes for acquisitions and partnerships in various countries. What are the key milestones, one year into your role, that you would like to celebrate with your team?
CH: One of the key milestones for us is the acquisition and integration of Ivenix, which will allow us to be a meaningful player in the US I.V. therapy market. The Ivenix Infusion System with the dedicated IMS software suite is the leading solution regarding flow rate accuracy, dose error reduction, interoperability with EMR systems, and workflow support. This will help our customers in I.V. therapy to improve their patient-centricity. We continue to support Ivenix and the I.V. therapy market and grow further in the US market.
During the Covid pandemic, we were faced with many supply challenges; suppliers could not deliver based on force majeures, we had big absenteeism of workers in the plants and shortages of containers. We used our global footprint to produce close to our customers and worked with our customer groups on a harmonization of the product portfolio to be able to ensure a more robust supply chain. The utilization of contingencies within our plant network and supplier base was key to ensuring a functioning supply for our customers. During these days we learned more than ever before how important it is to have a global production footprint that allows us to be agile and flexible and react to customer demands and unforeseen shortages in the market.
