We are the leading provider of products and services for people with chronic kidney failure.
Fresenius Medical Care is the world’s leading provider of products and services for people with chronic kidney failure. Around 3.4 million patients worldwide with this disease regularly undergo dialysis treatment. Dialysis is a life-saving blood cleansing procedure that substitutes the function of the kidney in case of kidney failure.
We care for more than 342,000 patients in our global network of more than 4,000 dialysis clinics. At the same time, we operate 42 production sites in more than 20 countries, to provide dialysis products such as dialysis machines, dialyzers and related disposables.
Fresenius Medical Care aims to further consolidate its expertise and to use this competence as a basis for sustainable, profitable growth. We aim to continuously improve our patients’ quality of life by offering them high-quality products as well as innovative technologies and treatment concepts.
Fresenius Medical Care’s corporate headquarters is in Bad Homburg v. d. Höhe, Germany. The headquarters in North America is in Waltham, Massachusetts, the headquarters of Asia-Pacific is located in Hongkong and the headquarters of Latin America is in Rio de Janeiro.
Through our network of more than 4,000 dialysis clinics, we provide dialysis treatments to more than 342,000 patients worldwide.
We offer dialysis products and services in around 150 countries.
We performed approximately 50 million dialysis treatments in 2018.
Every 0.6 seconds we provide a dialysis treatment somewhere on the globe.
Around 120,000 employees work for Fresenius Medical Care worldwide.
One of two dialysis machines worldwide is made by Fresenius Medical Care.
We operate 42 production sites in more than 20 countries.
In 2018, Fresenius Medical Care generated revenue of around 16.55 billion euros.
Major locations
Research and development
Developing innovative products and continuously improving our dialysis treatments are essential elements of our growth strategy.
Our worldwide research and development activities, which are centrally managed by the Global Research and Development division (GRD), enable us to develop products efficiently and to systematically promote the exchange of knowledge and technology between regions.
Global research and development strategy
Health care systems face major financial challenges now and in the long term. This confirms our intention to gear our research and development activities toward developing innovative products that are not only of high quality but are also affordable. As an operator of proprietary dialysis clinics and a provider of home treatment for patients, we know that these are by no means incompatible aims.
Our research and development strategy is globally oriented, enabling us to respond even better to the worldwide rise in demand for high-quality yet cost-efficient treatment methods. In doing so, we also take regional market conditions into account and offer a differentiated product range. In the future, we intend to deliver innovative, competitive products even more efficiently and strengthen our focus on developing countries.
In addition to research and development activities within our company, we collaborate with external partners with the aim of building a comprehensive innovation and technology network. These partners include numerous academic institutions, such as research institutes at renowned universities in the U.S. Another partner is the Renal Research Institute (RRI) in New York. This subsidiary of Fresenius Medical Care North America is a leading institution in the field of clinical research into all aspects of chronic kidney failure. Together, we are working on fundamental issues relating to dialysis treatment. We are also increasingly collaborating with start-ups with the objective of promoting an open culture of innovation and enabling access to the latest technologies.
Research and development resources
In fiscal year 2018, Fresenius Medical Care spent a total of around €134M on research and development (2017: €131M), corresponding to around 4% (2017: 4%) of our health care product revenue. At the end of 2018, our patent portfolio comprised some 9,152 property rights in approximately 1,340 patent families, i.e. groups of patents linked to the same invention. Our research and development work in the fiscal year 2018 produced around 126 additional patent families. Our broad portfolio of patents will provide us with a wide range of treatment options in this competitive area in future.
In 2018, 933 highly qualified employees (full-time equivalents) worked for Fresenius Medical Care in research and development worldwide (2017: 825). They come from various backgrounds: Physicians work side by side with software specialists, business economists and engineers in interdisciplinary teams. Around 590 employees – the majority of our research and development staff – are based in Europe. Most activities are carried out at our facilities in Schweinfurt and Bad Homburg v. d. Höhe (Germany). Other development sites are in St. Wendel (Germany), Bucharest (Romania) and Krems (Austria). In the U.S., the company maintains centers of excellence for the development of devices in Concord (California) and for dialyzers and other disposable products in Ogden (Utah). Development activities in Shanghai and Changshu (China) are focused on the growing demand for cost-effective dialysis systems in Asia and emerging markets. The global research and development organization coordinates collaboration and technology exchange among the various sites. Carrying out research and development responsibly is an intrinsic element of our innovation culture.
