Demand for Imaging in Healthcare Fuels Imaging Agent Market

The contrast agents and radiopharmaceutical market is expected to maintain respectable growth in the next few years, with much of that growth coming from the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultrasound, and nuclear medicine modalities, according to a recent market research report.

Yearly growth for medical contrast media during the next five years appears to be holding its own, despite the recession slowing capital equipment purchases, according to healthcare market research Kalorama Information (New York, NY, USA). Imaging exams are still required for making many diagnoses, and contrast enhancement facilitates diagnosis in many cases. Expect yearly growth rates for contrast agents used with most modalities to range from 2%-4%. The market reached USD 3.5 billion in 2011, according to Kalorama Information.

“It is no exaggeration to say that virtually nothing of consequence takes place in medicine today without a picture,” said Joseph Constance, imaging analyst for Kalorama Information. “As imaging technology proliferates and opens possibilities for more noninterventional procedures, market demand can only be expected to increase.”

Whereas equipment manufacturers may have experienced a drop in sales because of the recent recession, there is still a need for these agents, as well as for radiopharmaceuticals, to help image, monitor, and diagnose disease, particularly with older patients. Even though hospitals and clinics may have slowed their equipment purchases because of the need to contain costs, procedures run on installed systems still require the use of contrast agents and radiopharmaceuticals.

Kalorama analysts also indicated that the ongoing development of new contrast agents and radiopharmaceuticals indicates the vast market potential for these compounds in medical imaging. The imaging market is being driven by an aging population, and an increasing prevalence of an inactive lifestyle.

The aging population has almost assured there will be more cardiovascular, neurologic, and oncologic disorders. This means increased procedural volumes for magnetic resonance angiography (MRA), as well as for cardiac ultrasound, which require the use of contrast agents. With a number of contrast agents and radiopharmaceuticals already on the market, developers of new agents are faced with regulatory requirements to prove both the safety and effectiveness of their products.

Companies are developing new agents that are based on innovative chemistries, which must be fully studied and shown to have excellent repeatability. One successful approach has been the development of injected agents that increase the image contrast during an MRI procedure.

Kalorama reported that the contrast market for the X-ray segment will not grow as rapidly as the other segments because the X-ray equipment market is more mature and other modalities are taking clinical applications away from X-ray. Radiopharmaceuticals for use in molecular imaging will experience slightly stronger annual growth, as markets for single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET) are much less developed than the contrast agent markets for conventional modalities.

Kalorama Information, a division of Market Research dot com, supplies medical market research in diagnostics, biotech, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and healthcare; as well as custom research services.

Related Links:
Kalorama Information