As incomes grow in China, so does the obesity rate — and along with packing on the pounds come health issues such as sleep apnea.
Sleep apnea, which causes sufferers to struggle for breath throughout the night, is the specialty of San Diego-based ResMed Inc., featured as the Undervalued Stock in the November issue of BetterInvesting Magazine.
BetterInvesting contributor Kevin Lamiman reports that ResMed is one of the leading makers of continuous positive airway pressure systems. CPAP systems not only ease the way to a good night’s rest, but also help ward off related life-threatening conditions linked to sleep apnea.
Although the public lacks awareness of the hazards of this condition in the West, it’s even less well-known in China. But that may be changing.
The Reuters article explains: “Some Chinese with obstructive sleep apnea are seeking help from medical professionals, according to Dr. Han Fang, the chairman of the Chinese Sleep Research Society whose sleep clinic in Beijing used to have fewer than one patient with sleep-related respiratory problems a week on average, but is now seeing 10-20 of them every night. These trends may have significant health effects across the world’s most populous nation, and may end up benefiting some Western companies such as ResMed (RMD.N) and Amsterdam-based conglomerate Philips (PHG.AS), analysts said.”
One expert tells Reuters that some 70 million Chinese may suffer from sleep apnea.
The wire service further says: “China’s obesity rates will be a long-term driver for sales growth for ResMed and Respironics, the two leading companies in the CPAP market, said Ben Haynor, an analyst at Feltl and Company, an investment firm in Minneapolis.
“‘(Doctors) are becoming aware of the hand-in-hand nature of obesity and sleep apnea. This is going to be a tremendous opportunity.’”
BetterInvesting will be released in digital form Oct. 9 and will begin to arrive in the mail on Oct. 22.
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