The World's Largest Healthcare Event -- tHIS Opens to Record Breaking Crowds in Shanghai

SHANGHAI, May 19, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2015 Health Industry Summit (tHIS), an event that is predicted to transform the Chinese healthcare industry sector, opened to huge crowds on May 15, with over 210,000 visitors from 150 countries in attendance.

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Held at the brand new National Convention & Exhibition Center in Shanghai, tHIS is a large-scale healthcare event that combines China's three top medical equipment and pharmaceutical exhibitions CMEF, PHARMCHINA and API China into one mega healthcare event, in doing so completing the entire value chain for the health industry.

The exhibition occupies a total area of 290,000 sqm of exhibition space and showcases the latest cutting edge medical equipment and equipment manufacturing solutions, pharmaceutical formulations and ingredients, manufacturing technologies, natural health and nutrition products from over 6,800 exhibitors.

Well-known healthcare equipment giants like GE, SIEMENS, Philips, Mindray, and United Imaging had specially designed stands that served as a backdrop for the launch of the hundreds of new to market products, with GE Healthcare unveiling its Revolution CT imaging series, Mindray, with its flexible POC ultrasound system 'mobiEye 700', and ContextVision with GOPICE 2.0 software for imaging among a flurry of launch activities. Global Senior Vice President of GE/ President and CEO of GE China Ms. Rachel Duan Shares her view on the event's success: "Medical & healthcare equipment manufacturers highly value this platform, all bringing with them the latest and best technology to showcase. All the leading companies in the industry are here, all of the top industry talents are here, there lies the explosive popularity of the event."

Meanwhile, anticipating a huge turnout and with a focus on APIs and formulations, China's top pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors were ready to welcome tens of thousands of domestic and international buyers, while fast-growing market segments such as natural health and nutritional products represented by Natural Health and Nutrition China have seen participation double in size, and the medical device manufacturing show ICMD has seen unprecedented 300% growth in exhibitor participation.

Organizer Reed Sinopharm, a joint venture between the world's leading event organizer Reed Exhibitions and China's leading state-owned pharmaceutical group Sinopharm, used their combined strength of international networks and industry connectivity to write a new chapter for China's healthcare industry, as it transforms from localized industry developments into a maturing market with global reach.

According to a state-issued strategic whitepaper in 2013, China expects the total market size of its health sector to triple to a massive USD 1.2 trillion by 2020. This growth potential in China is partly attributable to its growing ageing population, expected to account for more than 30% of the total by 2050. This coupled with increasing urbanization and the further loosening of the one-child policy will ensure a boom in the birth rate, putting the current health system and hospital facilities under strain.

Furthermore, the new top level investment forum - Healthcare China heads a grand list of 107 conferences which completes the expo and conference mix, covering all the key fields and industry topics, with major conferences including the China Integrated Medical Imaging Summit, Asian Nuclear Medicine Academic Forum and Sino-Europe Pharmaceutical Forum.

Reed Sinopharm commented that tHIS will be held annually in Shanghai every spring and the event is anticipated to become the key platform to define the future trends of the healthcare sector in China and the world.