CIIE in the eyes of globa CEOs | Edwards Lifesciences: Supporting the development of a healthier China

Editor's notes:

The China International Import Expo has become an annual event for many multinational companies to stage new products and services for China. It is also a stage for global business leaders to share insights that reflect the Chinese market from different perspectives. We have invited some of them to voice their opinions, which is to shed light upon the upcoming CIIE this year!

Global communities have come together over the last two years in an unprecedented way, against the common challenge of COVID-19 to collaborate to solve really tough problems. It is a very complex environment, and has forced a lot of people within health care, communities and governments, to work together and share ideas, including some that may not naturally come together in a more normal environment.

This has been impressive, and I am hopeful that this demonstrated that health care can move fast, innovate and work together in unprecedented ways. I am encouraged by this and hopeful it can be a long-lasting impact.

For Edwards Lifesciences, we will continue to accelerate the introduction of innovative therapies in China, expanding technology offerings from surgical valves, transcatheter aortic heart valves and critical care monitoring technologies to new and innovative transcatheter treatments for mitral and tricuspid valve disease.

Our goal is to provide exceptional quality and service, driven by excellent clinical outcomes. We are committed to working with physicians, hospitals, and patients across China to improve access to our technology. We are hopeful that future economic growth in China will allow more Chinese patients better access to advanced technologies that address unmet patient needs, such as those that Edwards is and will be bringing to China.

Edwards has just reached the 20th-year mark in China and it is a good time for us to reflect on what we have been able to achieve in China for the Chinese patients. In these 20 years, Edwards has introduced a number of innovative and life-saving heart valve and critical care products, and I am proud that we have done it in a way that always has patient benefits in mind.

Edwards is proud to serve patients from diverse backgrounds, all around the world, both through our innovations and philanthropic partnerships. Through the Edwards Lifesciences Foundation, we support many philanthropic initiatives that increase access to health care for underserved patients, including for patients in China. More specifically focused on sustainability, Edwards has continued to make progress and demonstrate a commitment to address and respond to the needs of our stakeholders around the world.

Our sustainability strategy supports our business strategy. This complete integration has enabled us to deliver on our sustainability commitments, while driving further growth and innovation for all our stakeholders. Our sustainability commitment begins with our Credo which guides our values, spirit and conscience in everything that we do, and forms the framework for our Aspirations, which are the goals that inspire us every day.

Global governance

As a leader in patient-focused innovation, we will engage in dialogue and transparency with our stakeholders to act as trusted partners and be accountable for our environmental, social and governance performance. Edwards has set a goal that by 2025, we will reduce our environmental footprint according to our environment, health and safety plan, which includes specific targets around reduction of energy usage, utilization of renewable energy, reduction in water intake, reduction in total waste generation and reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. These goals apply to Edwards' facilities worldwide, including our operations in China.

Edwards Lifesciences has been in China for 20 years now, with offices in Shanghai and serving patients around China. We have provided medical technology to China in our fields of critical care medicine and surgical heart valves, and we are very proud to have just introduced TAVR, transcatheter aortic valve replacement, in 2020. We've partnered very closely with Chinese clinicians and academic institutions to enhance the health-care capabilities in China.

We consider China very important and very strategic for Edwards. As a global leader in medical technology, we want to be viewed as a trusted partner to support the development of a healthier China, as China pursues the goal of building a Healthy China by 2030. We recognize the Chinese government's efforts to broaden reforms, and we would encourage continuing down that pathway to recognize the value of clinicians and, ultimately, make sure that the investments in health care are really being delivered to the care of patients.

We are proud that Edwards has been in China, and Shanghai specifically, for 20 years. Today, our business in China covers more than 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities on the Chinese mainland, and our medical technologies have served more than 1.5 million Chinese patients. Our team in China, along with their colleagues around the world, truly have a passion for helping patients, and we are pleased that operating out of Shanghai provides access to key talent for Edwards.

Serving patients is what drives us, and it's important to us every single day. We have a unique patient-focused innovation strategy, and our belief is that we should focus, because there are big unmet needs amongst structural heart patients and the critically ill. If we apply technology to those, then we can give them a much better life, and a much better future by transforming patient care. We pursue big, bold innovations, and we invest a lot to create world-class evidence, so that you can trust that the new way is better than the old way. And we also like to go first. Creating the path is never easy and it's fraught with risk, but our ability to learn fast and to collaborate with the thought leaders, who really help us, to create the path is most important.

This is the second year that Edwards Lifesciences is participating in China International Import Expo, and we are very proud to again have the opportunity to participate in this important forum. As a global leader in medical technology, Edwards strives to be a trusted partner in every country we work in and we are dedicated in our efforts to developing a healthier China.

We have been proud to provide our most innovative products and technologies to China, including heart valves and patient monitoring technologies. During CIIE, we will have the opportunity to share more about these advanced technologies for Chinese patients, including our SAPIEN 3 transcatheter heart valve that was approved in China in 2020. We are proud to be the first multi-national to offer transcatheter aortic valve replacement, or TAVR, in China – we are the global leader in this important therapy, and so we take our responsibility very seriously.

We are driven by our passion to help patients, and looking at the next 20 years and beyond, we will continue our investment in China, contribute to clinical research and innovation and bring the latest technologies to the Chinese patients in the fields of structural heart disease and critical care medicine.