Germany's Medica 2017 Kicks Off Amid Changeable Outlook, As MDR Clouds Scud Into View

 
• By Ashley Yeo
  
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Germany's medtech industry is yet to find out who will hold the political reins for health care and the other ministerial portfolios that influence the market access and innovation support mechanisms for medtech products. Meanwhile, in the run-up to Medica 2017, German manufacturers were reporting both moderate business growth and increasing concern about reimbursement issues and the EU MDR and IVDR, which are making life less predictable for medtech innovators.

One month after Germany's hung-Parliament general election, and with a new government still to be formed from the limited available coalition opportunities, the 19th German Bundestag sat in late October for the first time. Given the ongoing national leadership vacuum, federal President Steinmeier asked Chancellor Merkel and officials from her previous cabinet to head up executive decision-making for as long as it takes to form a new administration.

Seen from afar, the political management of Europe's leading economy – and medtech economy with sales of €29bn ($33.8bn) in...

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