Chinese expansion in the international healthcare markets: The role of Chinese OFDI in Europe

Abstract

The paper sheds light on the increasing interest of Chinese firms operating in key healthcare (HC) industries into Europe. After a description of the economic and policy context for HC in China, we perform an analysis on location choice by Chinese firms, updated to 2014, within Europe. A MofCom database of greenfield and non-greenfield Chinese investments abroad is used. We depict a map of 'where to where' of home province vs. host country involved in the integration of Chinese and European healthcare industries. Both spatial localisation, and motivations of Chinese investments in Europe are examined, for the following sub-sectors: Pharmaceutical, medical device and equipment and biotechnology. Research and policy implications conclude the paper.