Targeting Acute Wounds with Advanced Technologies
Executive Summary
Acute wound care will continue to evolve as hospitals face increasing pressure from payors and patient safety advocates to address the issue of surgical wounds and surgical site infections. CMS has added SSIs to the list of preventable, hospital-acquired conditions that it will no longer cover. A number of companies are seizing the opportunity to develop technologies that can help hospitals and patients avoid these costly conditions.
You may also be interested in...
Biologics: The Growth Engine in Advanced Wound Care
With estimated revenues in excess of $5 billion per year worldwide, the advanced wound care market has garnered the attention of both major companies and investors for its tremendous potential. Growth in this market is being driven by the development of new bioactive products that can successfully heal chronic wounds such as diabetic foot ulcers, which are among the most challenging and costly to treat.
Wound Care: Finding a Niche
The relatively open nature of the wound care market has created a golden opportunity for manufacturers to step up and introduce a variety of new products, although rarely is new a signal of true innovation in this space. And that, in turn, has created a broad, diverse, and fragmented industry, as demonstrated by the packed exhibit hall at the April 2010 meeting of the Symposium on Advanced Wound Care and the Wound Healing Society.
Market in Focus: Surgical Sealants and Glues
Over the past few decades, the wound closure market has seen the introduction of a number of new technologies, including a variety of surgical adhesives and glues for both external and internal use to hold tissues together and/or reinforce surgical suture or staple lines. These products address a market that encompasses over 73 million surgical wounds annually in the US alone and generated sales of over $367 million in the US last year, according to Medtech Insight's recently published report US Markets for Current and Emerging Wound Closure Technologies. The US market for surgical sealants and glues is growing at an annual rate of about 3.8% and is expected to reach about $443 million in sales by 2013.