The $1 billion vascular closure market is primed for growth. It comes on the back of intensive R&D that has spawned a range of alternatives to the traditional manual/compression approach, giving SJM and the sector’s other heavyweights cause to look over their shoulders.

With an annual growth of almost 5%, the market for vascular access site repair products is attracting companies with innovative new products. Wider acceptance of new approaches to wound closure by interventionalists and the under-penetration in emerging Asian markets in particular are resulting in an uptake in the use of higher-tech devices and the emergence of local manufacturers.

There are some 15 million medical procedures performed worldwide each year using interventional, catheter-based techniques, and that number will grow as the aging population demands less invasive treatments. This revolution has already generated multibillion dollar product markets for the devices used to perform these procedures, but there is another huge, frequently overlooked opportunity: devices for closing the puncture site.