Medical Device Company Intelligence Reports provide a full review of the company's activities, from its origins to its latest corporate activity, including mergers and acquisitions, agreements, divestitures, major purchasing contracts and litigation. Sections are included on products, international activities and R&D, as well as a full, in-depth five year financial analysis. An introduction to each report and a full table of contents is provided for review. More than 60 Medical Device Company Intelligence Reports are currently available. Coloplast, headquartered in Humlebaek, Denmark, develops, manufactures and markets medical disposables such as ostomy devices, continence care products, wound care, skin care, breast prostheses and special dressings.

The company has subsidiaries in 26 countries and its products are sold in 100 countries worldwide. Coloplast employs over 6,000 people around the world, of whom almost 3,900 were based outside Denmark. By the end of the first quarter 2006, Europe accounted for 79% of total sales, the Americas for 14%, and the rest of the world for just 7%. Much of the revenue from the latter area is from Japan and Australia, where the company has established its own sales subsidiaries, as it has in China and New Zealand. Independent distributors handle the smaller Asian markets. However, revenue growth in the rest of the world was 12%, with increasing market shares in key product areas, and whether additional subsidiaries are needed in that region looks likely to be addressed.

Coloplast's ostomy products account for the largest proportion of its business, representing 45% of gross sales by the end of the first quarter of 2006. The company claims to be the world's second-largest ostomy product manufacturer after ConvaTec, a subsidiary of Bristol-Myers Squibb, with a global market share of 27%, and to have the largest share - 39% - of Europe. Its second-largest product line is continence care, representing 29% of gross sales, and Coloplast claims 19% of the global market and to be the European market leader. Wound and Skin Care is Coloplast's third-largest area, generating 19% of gross sales at the end of the first quarter of 2006.

Breast care differs from the other three divisions in terms of customers, distribution and technology and operates as a separate unit, representing 7% of gross sales in the first quarter of 2006. Through its Amoena subsidiary, Coloplast claims to be the world's leading manufacturer of external breast forms for women who have had a breast removed and of specially-designed post-mastectomy lingerie and swimwear. According to the company, it holds a 48% share of the overall market, and for breast forms alone, a market share exceeding 50%.