If you’ve just received a prosthetic heart valve, and your heart is pumping beautifully, you probably don’t care that industry analysts predict the prosthetic surgical heart valve market will soar past $1.3 billion by 2017. You’re just happy to be alive!
But that’s what market researchers Global Industry Analysts (GIA) say will happen to this marketplace in the next five years, according to a company press release.
The research report, "Prosthetic Heart Valves: A Global Strategic Business Report,” provides a comprehensive review of trends, issues, strategic industry activities, competition and profiles of major companies worldwide, according to GIA.
Prosthetic heart valves are used to replace under-performing, diseased or deformed valves that some might carry in their bodies. The valves help the heart to function normally, according to the press release. More than 60,000 patients per year are estimated to undergo heart valve replacement in the United States. And what’s driving the market is our aging population and increased incidences of diabetes, which can harm the heart.
Diabetics are at least twice as likely as those without diabetes to have heart disease or a stroke. And since the incidence of diabetes is rising precipitously, more people will require prosthetic heart valves.
Another factor in the market spurt is technological advances, according to the press release. Led by the bioprosthetic transcatheter valves, tissue valves are currently the hottest (and most profitable) end of the market and are expected to further weaken the mechanical valve part of the market.
Implantating new bioprosthetic-tissue valves into the hearts of patients who are too sick or too old for open-heart surgery has given new life to these patients, according to a new multi-center study, as published online in the New England Journal of Medicine, and reported at sciencedaily.com.
Other technological advances of the tissue valves expected to inch the market up higher include better blood flow and improved durability of the new generation tissue, according to the press release. In addition, the recent FDA approval of Edwards Lifesciences' TAVI device, Sapiens in late 2011 will aid similar devices awaiting approval, GIA says.
The firm says in the press release that the device is the first bioprosthetic valve to be FDA-approved for patients with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis, narrowing of the aorta which impedes blood flow, making the heart work harder. The press release notes that the completion of the randomized clinical trial for Abbott Laboratories' MitraClip, a percutaneous device for mitral valve disease, was also a huge step.
The report reveals that the market for prosthetic heart valves is biggest in the US, but Europe, where the heart valve market is primarily driven by the TAVI procedure, also figures significantly. And Asia, the fastest growing market for prosthetic valves, is quickly coming up behind, according to the report.
Edited by
Rich Steeves
