G. Brown

Some people say that our respective departments each have their own distinct view on things. I can’t say I agree. Here at research and development, the patient is always at the focus of our work. We do all we can to create products that improve his quality of life, that are safe, and allow better treatment. Isn’t that true for you? Doesn’t marketing put the patient first, too?

W. Wehmeyer

Yes, of course. What we do is to respond to customers’ wishes, and that includes patients, as well as clinics and physicians. We also deal with market mechanisms. Hm, that sounds a bit technical. You know, really, our job is to dream. We are driven by the question of what our customers consider an ideal product to be. To find the answer to this question, we like to dream. And we get impatient when the market demands an innovation and we think it is taking too long to get one ready.

G. Brown

And we are the ones who can tell you what is technologically feasible. We at R&D deal more with the scientific and engineering side of things, but of course we are also tuned into the market. However, we will only release a product when it is technologically sound and safe to use. But in the end, we both put the patient’s well-being first, don’t we?

W. Wehmeyer

Definitely. In the medium to long term, our success will always depend on progress as the patient sees it. After all, we’re talking about what is most precious to him – his life, and its quality.

G. Brown

And our aim is to improve that. It has to do with the reliability of our machines and the confidence that patients rightly place in their treatment. Today, our machines are built so that, if they were cars, they would only need to be serviced once every 130,000 miles – that’s not even one-sixth of what today’s cars demand. But are our customers aware of that? Are we telling them that clearly enough?

W. Wehmeyer

I think so. Remember, most of them have used our products for years. That means they have seen for themselves that the quality of our machines is second to none.

G. Brown

So what we have to do now is to produce this kind of quality at an affordable price. I think we manage that fairly well already. At present, we can say we are the best in the world, both in terms of quality itself and in the ratio of cost to quality.

W. Wehmeyer

But we aren’t going to rest on our laurels ...

G. Brown

No, absolutely not! It’s not as if there’s nothing left to be improved. Ideally, patients should be able to undergo dialysis without noticing anything at all. We‘re still a long way from that, but the roadmap is clear. It’s a matter of compatibility and machines that can automatically adapt the treatment to individual patients.

W. Wehmeyer

Another important factor is that our products should work equally well the world over: in poor countries, where there often aren’t enough nurses, especially in outlying areas, or in regions with water shortages or bad water quality as well as in rich countries. No matter where they live, patients have a right to expect outstanding quality from us.

G. Brown

Which brings us back to quality. It doesn’t come for free, and our efforts to achieve and improve it are enormous.

W. Wehmeyer

But customers do pay for our quality, simply by buying our products and services. They know that poor quality leads to follow-up costs, even though these may go unnoticed for a while. But somewhere down the line, it will hit back like a boomerang.

G. Brown

... and the patient will suffer. But we won’t let that happen.

W. Wehmeyer

That’s what our customers rely on. And it‘s what all our teams work to achieve, whether in R&D, production or marketing.

You can’t hear quality. A technician in a soundproof
room measures the noise intensity emitted by a dialyzer
assembly. The quieter the machines, the less stressful
the therapy is for the patient.

Wolfgang Wehmeyer
Senior Vice President International
Marketing and Medicine
at Fresenius Medical Care

The health of our patients is our main concern.
Therefore, our goal in the long term is to improve their quality
of life by continuously optimizing dialysis treatment.

– our contribution –

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
EXPENDITURE
IN 2008
$80 MILLION

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES IN
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
WORLDWIDE
415

NUMBER OF PATENTS
AND PATENT APPLICATIONS
IN 2008
2,402

Further information on this topic can be found here.