While Western companies like General Electric Co. and Royal Philips Electronics NV are busy selling expensivemedicalequipment in emerging markets like China, Chinese upstart Mindray Medical International is moving into their backyard, slowly winning over customers like Hoboken University Medical Center in New Jersey with machines that cost 40% less than mainstream alternatives.

The Shenzhen-based company has expanded from the beachhead it established in 2004 with a small office in Seattle. In 2006, the company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

In 2008, it bought Mahwah, N.J.-based Datascope Patient Monitoring for $200 million, acquiring a direct sales force and expertise in navigating the U.S. regulatory process.

'They're extremely ambitious,' says Wayne Quinn, vice president of U.S. sales for Mindray. 'They see a big opportunity to grow the business in the U.S.'

Although Mindray is small and still has to overcome concerns about the quality of its patient monitors and ultrasound machines, Mr. Quinn says pressure on reimbursements has many hospitals on the lookout for lower-priced equipment. Mindray bids aggressively for business, helped by cheaper labor and parts as well as a decision to sacrifice some margin to win deals.

Mindray's ambitions illustrate how China is evolving from just a big market into a potentialcompetitor for sales.

The company set up shop in Shenzhen, an electronics hub where the iPhone and other high-tech devices are assembled, in 1991. It grew rapidly by selling less expensiveequipment to lower-tier hospitals in China while top hospitals were buying costlier, full-featured equipment from such global players as GE, Siemens AG and Philips.

Mindray founders Xu Huang, 47 years old, and Li Xiting, 58, were engineers at a state-owned maker of medical instruments in the 1980s. They have turned themselves into entrepreneurs worth roughly $1 billion each, with the bulk of that wealth tied up in company shares.

A chief aim is expanding abroad. The company's sales rose 10.5% in the first six months of the year to $325 million, even as revenue in China fell. The U.S. accounted for a fifth of Mindray's sales last year, and the company would like to boost that to 30%.

Mindray's top sellers include devices that monitor patient heart rates and blood pressure; central-systems products that store patient data; and ultrasound machines, including the hand-carried M7.

Its 400-person operation in the U.S. is run by David Gibson, who used to head the patient-monitoring division at Datascope. He spent six years as a U.S. Navy officer on a nuclear submarine and another six working for GE Healthcare.

Although GE and Philips easily lead the $1.1 billion U.S. ultrasound market and Mindray's share is only 3%, Mr. Gibson believes there's room to win business. 'We've been able to find gaps' in their customer service, he says.

Hoboken University Medical Center, a 328-bed hospital in Hoboken, N.J., switched from all Philips monitoring equipment to 95% Mindray last year.

James Genovese, director of biomedicalengineering, says Mindray's quote on dozens of monitors and other equipment came in at $900,000, 44% less than the quote the hospital got from Philips. Now, he says, the hospital is considering Mindray ultrasound machines.

'Their support and service are absolutely phenomenal,' Mr. Genovese says. 'They respond 10 times faster than any of the other [companies] we have ever had to deal with.'

Some U.S. medical officials question the quality of the Chinese products. They worry that the quality-control problems China has had with toys and other consumer goods could be devastating if they showed up in health-care products.

'This is a tremendous point of vulnerability for this country,' says Johnathan Rose, president of Group Associates, a consulting firm in Miami that advises hospital systems on strategy. 'You have to be very careful if they're building [products] to compete economically.'

Harvey Klein, the proprietor of Klein Biomedical Consultants Inc. in New York, says Mindray has only just cracked the Top 10 for ultrasound market share globally, and he predicts it will take three years before Mindray rivals GE, Philips and Siemens on image quality.

'To compete in ultrasound and other segments, they need better performance, and they know it,' Mr. Klein says.

Tom Bielan, the chief financial officer for Mindray in the U.S., says the company pays close attention to quality. It has been spending roughly 10% of its revenue each year on research and development in six centers around the world, and it has introduced an average of eight new products a year.

It also aims to expand into other product areas, including digital radiography, defibrillators and MRI machines.

'I have a lot of respect for them,' says Omar Ishrak, president of GE Healthcare Systems. GE aims to expand in patient monitoring in China, where Mind ray has a 49% share of the market, and it needs to fend off Mindray in ultrasound.

'We have more options and price points. We can compete above and below them,' Mr. Ishrak says. 'Their play is essentially from what we see an attempt to produce low-cost products.'

But Mindray executives bristle at such comments, contending that large rivals are slow to innovate in emerging markets, Mr. Quinn, the U.S. sales executive, compares GE and Philips to Coke and Pepsi. 'When you only have two major players in the marketplace, people crave an alternative,' he says.

Paul Glader

• western [´westən] a.西的；西方的 (初中英语单词)
• expensive [ik´spensiv] a.费钱的，昂贵的 (初中英语单词)
• medical [´medikəl] a.医学的；医疗的 (初中英语单词)
• equipment [i´kwipmənt] n.装备，设备 (初中英语单词)
• international [,intə´næʃənəl] a.国际的，世界的 (初中英语单词)
• jersey [´dʒə:zi] n.毛织运动衫；毛线衫 (初中英语单词)
• extremely [ik´stri:mli] ad.极端地；非常地 (初中英语单词)
• overcome [,əuvə´kʌm] vt.战胜，克服 (初中英语单词)
• pressure [´preʃə] n.压榨 vt.对...施压力 (初中英语单词)
• illustrate [´iləstreit] vt.加插图；举例说明 (初中英语单词)
• wealth [welθ] n.财富，财产 (初中英语单词)
• abroad [ə´brɔ:d] ad.海外；到处；广泛 (初中英语单词)
• monitor [´mɔnitə] n.班长 v.监控；检查 (初中英语单词)
• working [´wə:kiŋ] a.工人的；劳动的 (初中英语单词)
• customer [´kʌstəmə] n.顾客，买主，主顾 (初中英语单词)
• director [di´rektə] n.指导者；....长；导演 (初中英语单词)
• absolutely [´æbsəlu:tli] ad.绝对地；确实 (初中英语单词)
• respond [ri´spɔnd] v.回答；响应；有反应 (初中英语单词)
• tremendous [tri´mendəs] a.可怕的；巨大的 (初中英语单词)
• compete [kəm´pi:t] v.比赛，竞争，对抗 (初中英语单词)
• performance [pə´fɔ:məns] n.履行；行为；工作 (初中英语单词)
• financial [fi´nænʃəl] a.金融的，财政的 (初中英语单词)
• research [ri´sə:tʃ] n.&vi.调查；探究；研究 (初中英语单词)
• executive [ig´zekjutiv] a.行政的 n.行政官 (初中英语单词)
• margin [´mɑ:dʒin] n.边缘；空白；余地 (高中英语单词)
• potential [pə´tenʃəl] n.&a.潜在的；可能的 (高中英语单词)
• competitor [kəm´petitə] n.竞争者；比赛者 (高中英语单词)
• roughly [´rʌfli] ad.粗糙地；毛糙地 (高中英语单词)
• billion [´biljən] num.万亿 (高中英语单词)
• revenue [´revinju:] n.税收；收入 (高中英语单词)
• submarine [´sʌbməri:n] a.海中的 n.潜水艇 (高中英语单词)
• engineering [,endʒi´niəriŋ] n.工程技术；工程学 (高中英语单词)
• consumer [kən´sju:mə] n.消费者；用户 (高中英语单词)
• proprietor [prə´praiətə] n.所有人；业主；经营者 (高中英语单词)
• expand [ik´spænd] vt.张开；膨胀；扩大 (高中英语单词)
• bristle [´brisəl] n.鬃 vi.发怒 (高中英语单词)
• winning [´winiŋ] n.&a.胜利(的) (英语四级单词)
• lookout [´lukaut] n.警戒；景色；前途 (英语四级单词)
• considering [kən´sidəriŋ] prep.就...而论 (英语四级单词)
• essentially [i´senʃəli] ad.本质上，基本上 (英语四级单词)
• strategy [´strætidʒi] n.兵法；战略 (英语六级单词)
• cracked [krækt] a.有裂缝的；碎的；粗哑 (英语六级单词)