Spokane-based Biomedex Inc. has launched a subsidiary that hopes by next year to begin selling health-related products in China.


The new unit, called Biomedex International LLC, already has hired an international marketing manager who has expertise in registering and marketing in China new foreign-made products.


The manager, Min Ho, is a Chinese national who lives in the San Francisco Bay area. She recently spent five weeks in China introducing the Biomedex name to her business contacts there.


Ho, who visited Spokane recently, says the new subsidiary is looking at a number of possible products with which to start its foray into China, and expects to introduce one at a big trade show there sometime this month and begin clinical evaluation there soon after. She says its not clear yet what that product will be, but says it will be in the field of allergy diagnosis. The product likely will be made by a U.S. manufacturer and sold in China under the Biomedex name, she says.


This fall, Biomedex International will begin pursuing regulatory approval in China to sell the product, and by next winter or spring, the company should begin exporting the product to China.


Ho was accompanied on her recent trip to China by Spokane restaurateurs Gang Li and Jin Shao, who own China Best, a downtown Chinese restaurant, and who are natives of China. They are working for the Biomedex unit on a contract basis, helping it to establish contacts in China and to understand the countrys culture and business environment, says Biomedex President George Coleman.


The couple introduced Coleman, a regular patron at China Best, to Ho.


Coleman says Biomedex International will use Hos expertise in introducing products in China to build an import-export business involving products made by Biomedex and others, and also will offer her expertise on a consulting basis to other manufacturers.


Well develop, like we have in other Biomedex businesses, our expertise and contacts in the industry. Then we can assist other companies for a feea very large fee, he says with a smile.


Adds Ho, There are not many companies that do that.


Three-year-old Biomedex, which employs about 35 people and has annual sales of between $1 million and $2 million, is working to take a handful of health-care related products to market under license with other companies, but gets most of its revenue from helping drug makers and other biotech concerns validate their manufacturing processes and sterilize equipment.


Ho says there are great opportunities in China for smaller companies such as Biomedex International. Though some of the worlds largest drug makers and consumer health-product conglomerates already have a presence in China, they tend to react slowly to consumer demand there, Ho contends. She asserts that smaller, more nimble companies that know how to do business in Chinaand have the right contactshave a good chance to be the first to market in China with new products.


This is the right time for medium to small companies to go to China, says Ho, who says she has registered 13 products there for other U.S. companies over the past 10 years.


Ho says Biomedex will focus on allergy diagnosis first because the technology available in that field in China is old, and Biomedex could enter the market as a leader.


Later, Biomedex International might look to export allergy treatment compounds to China, and then broaden beyond the allergy arena into disinfecting agents, rapid tests for sexually-transmitted diseases, and products that help prevent such diseases as tuberculosis and hepatitis, says Ho.


Rapid diagnosis isnt available, she says, adding that when it can be found, its at a hospital, rather than in a clinic or doctors office.


Says Bob Pomrenke, director of sales and marketing at Biomedex, The challenge is to find products that are appropriate for China. Were talking to companies that want to be there but never have dreamed about doing it. We think theyll be able to use Biomedex to get to China.


Biomedex International expects that some of the products it markets in China will be made here and exported, while others will be manufactured in China under license, and then distributed there.


Ho says she also is talking with scientists at a Chinese research institution about licensing their discoveries in the field of infectious-disease prevention, manufacturing those products in the U.S., and then selling them back in China.


That could happen within a year, she says. We have all the connections.