Fresenius Medical Care is the world’s leading provider of products and services for people with chronic kidney failure. Around 2.8 M patients with this disease worldwide regularly undergo dialysis treatment. Dialysis is a vital blood cleansing procedure that substitutes the function of the kidney in case of kidney failure. Serbian dialysis machines producer Hemomed was established in 1982 as a joint venture enterprise by Serbia's leading pharmaceuticals maker Hemofarm and Germany's kidney dialysis company Fresenius Medical Care AG. The company, which was transformed into a mixed enterprise in 1993, sold 303,826 dialysers on the domestic market in 2003, down 7.57% year-on-year. Hemomed's product range features over twenty types of dialysers, different types of concentrates and CAPD dialysis solutions. The company supplies dialysis centres with dialysis machines, consumables and reproductive material and performs complete consignment services for Fresenius. In 1997, Hemomed became the Yugoslav company whose products were approved to bore the CE mark as confirmation of high quality. Hemomed is also a holder of the ISO 9002 and EN 46002 certificates. In December 2005, Fresenius Medical Care raised its stake in the company to 100%.