CHA Healthcare, an affiliate of CHA Biotech, has acquired Fertility Specialists of Western Australia (FSWA), the largest fertility center in the region, through City Fertility, a fertility center operated by CHA Healthcare.

FSWA is a fertility institution established in 2006 and has two fertility centers in Perth, the capital of Western Australia and the fourth largest city in Australia. FSWA performs more than 1,200 in vitro fertilization procedures annually, accounting for about 30 percent of all IVF procedures in Perth.

CHA Healthcare entered the Australian infertility treatment market by acquiring City Fertility, which has seven infertility centers, in 2018.

With the recent acquisition of FSWA, the company has 18 infertility centers in Australia.

CHA Healthcare has also dispatched medical workers and researchers from CHA Hospital to Australia. It is expanding its position in the Australian fertility treatment market by applying its advanced technology and systems. In 2021, CHA Healthcare's fertility centers had completed about 7,000 IVF procedures, aiming to conduct more than 10,000 IVF procedures per year by 2026.

According to the company, the number of couples experiencing infertility in Australia is increasing as women's first childbirth age increases.

One in nine couples of childbearing age in Australia has infertility, and about 4.9 percent of the total 305,832 births in 2019 were through IVF. The Australian government also supports infertility treatment through the Medicare program to respond to the declining birthrate.

The company expects that the Australian fertility treatment market will grow.

"After entering the Australian medical market for the first time as a Korean company in 2018, we have laid the foundation for sustainable growth by acquiring and expanding facilities," CHA Healthcare CEO Cho Seong-soo said. "Using Australia as a bridgehead, we plan to expand our medical network to Southeast Asian regions such as Vietnam and Indonesia."