Sheffield healthcare firm JRI signs new multi-million deal in Chinese market

JRI Orthopaedics, the Sheffield-based healthcare company, has strengthened its position in China and the Far East with after securing a new multi-million pound deal.

Last year, the company signed a £4m sub-manufacturing contract with China’s largest domestic orthopaedic producer, AK Medical. The three-year deal means Chinese designed hip implants are being manufactured in JRI’s Sheffield plant to then be sold in China.

JRI Orthopaedics has now secured regulatory approval to sell its own cemented, uncemented and revision hip product portfolio in China and has signed an exclusive distribution deal with Beijing-based AK Medical.

Entry into the Chinese market is expected to result in the company selling a minimum of 10,000 hip implants in China over the next five years.

Keith Jackson, JRI Orthopaedics chief executive, said: “China has a population of 1.3 billion but currently only 250 million people have access to a hip replacement. The potential is huge and we see this as a significant market for the company.

“There is a really good appetite for high-quality, innovative British brands. Our proven, world class, precision manufacturing capabilities and efficiencies means we have defied convention to manufacture Chinese-designed products for the Chinese market here in Sheffield.

“But, securing regulatory approval from the Chinese Food and Drink Administration to sell our own high-quality products to Chinese orthopaedic surgeons is a huge step.”

JRI Orthopaedics’s products were formally launched at the Chinese Orthopaedic Association congress in Beijing last week where the distribution deal with AK Medical was signed.

The company also secured a further order which will increase the number of AK Medical implants manufactured in Sheffield next year by 50%.

In addition, JRI is submitting product registrations in Japan and, after signing a distribution deal, is hoping to get regulatory approvals there by the end of 2017. A new distribution partner has also been secured in Australia.

JRI Orthopaedics, which employs 115 people, has specialises in the design, development and manufacture of orthopaedic implants and surgical instruments.