Scandinavian Company To Aid Childless Chinese

Medicult – a Danish-Norwegian manufacturer of growth media and pipettes for artificial insemination – has opened a subsidiary in Shanghai. In a majority-share joint venture with a local partner the Jyllinge-based company will attempt to enter the potentially highly lucrative Chinese market, where an estimated 10% to 15% of all couples are considered childless (unable to conceive within a 12-month period).

"We consider China a new growth market. That's why we've started up in Shanghai," says Medicult CEO Jesper Funding Andersen. "In China childlessness is treated by the private sector. And since both China as a nation, as well as the population in the cities, experiences economic progress, we see a lot more people who can afford being treated for childlessness."

Medicult is currently carrying out a large-scale research project aimed at developing a method to reduce the extraordinarily high percentage of twins, triplets, etc. that are often the result of artificial insemination. The largest experiment of its kind – but currently brought to a near standstill by the ongoing health-service strike in Denmark – it includes 1,100-1,200 childless couples in 11 clinics across Scandinavia. And if completed successfully experts predict no less than a global breakthrough for Medicult, already sailing in sunny waters with a 50% increase in annual turnover last year and a 59% growth in profits in the first quarter of 2008.   

Full story in Danish