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Rapid Consolidation Reshaping World Dialysis Market

The dialysis industry is consolidating at a rapid pace as the top players attempt to expand their networks across the globe. A robust $67.5 billion business, the dialysis market has managed to fuel its growth engine with 5% to 6% growth per year in the past 5 years. The bulk of these revenues are for dialysis care services, which has led global dialysis equipment providers to enter the services segment through acquisitions of smaller regional players.

Dialysis patients are high-value customers, costing an estimated $34,000 per year on average. They are a relatively stable customer base which explains how the dialysis industry is noncyclical in nature and is only minimally affected by the vagaries of economic downturns. And despite a relatively small customer base of just over 2 million patients worldwide, the industry has attracted a large number of players, especially in the highly fragmented services segment, which is made up of mostly regional companies.

Consolidation has become a recurring theme in the dialysis sector. Between 2005 and 2011, several structural changes occurred in the industry. Gambro exited the North American dialysis care market by selling its dialysis care division to DaVita, Inc. and Fresenius bought Renal Advantage Inc. to maintain its leadership in North American dialysis care. The company also acquired Hema Metrics Crit-Line system business in early 2011. In 2009, Baxter acquired Edwards CRRT a provider of continuous renal replacement therapy.

This new report, “World Market for Dialysis Equipment and Services”, examines in detail both the dialysis products industry with its demand structure and major trends affecting it, and the services industry and its composition. Profiles of the major competitors are included, along with key market data and growth forecasts.

World Wound Care Markets 2011

Therapies using vacuums, novel ingredients such as silver and honey, and moist dressings are among the new technologies driving the wound care market. The market is also being influenced by demographic trends, economic uncertainty, the impact of health care reform, increasing numbers of uninsured patients, reimbursement pressures from third party payers, continuing shortage of nurses and physicians and increasing technology and supply costs.

The world market for products that treat wounds grew 6.2% in 2010 and is expected to grow nearly 7% this year. An aging population and an increased in diabetes incidence have driven growth, but a host of new approaches and a coming-of-age of recent innovations are the greatest factors driving growth. Therapy using vacuums, novel ingredients such as silver and honey, and moist dressings are among the new technologies driving the wound care market.

Wounds are known to heal better in a vacuum than in a normal atmosphere, and thus negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) devices that can create a vacuum around the wound area continue to see sales growth. Moist dressings using hydrocolloids intended to stick to wounds but not dry them out, or hydrogels which help sooth nerve endings, are also product categories-to-watch, according to the report. Companies that offer moist dressing products include 3M, ConvaTec, B. Braun and Systagenix. Silver-based products also saw expansion last year. Smith & Nephew’s Allevyn Ag line, containing antimicrobial silver, saw two recent product extensions including a ‘gentle’ version.

The worldwide wound care market reached revenues of $14.9 billion in 2010; this is based on sales at the manufacturers’ level. The market was varied in terms of both product offerings and product maturity.

The market potential for advanced wound care products are detailed in Kalorama Information’s Wound Care 2011, a complete look at the wound care industry. This is one of the few reports on the wound care industry to break out the market by application area - wound care for the treatment of burns, wound care for the treatment of skin ulcers, and wound care for surgical concerns.

As part of its coverage of the market today, this report includes:

• Description of Wound Care Products and Innovations
• World Wound Care Products Market Size and Forecast to 2015
• Reimbursement Trends in the US and Other Countries
• Key Industry Developments and Trends
• Competitor Profiles
• Types of Wounds and Treatment
• Current Market Sizes by Application Area (Burns, Skin Ulcers, Surgical and Trauma Wounds), Product Type and Country/Region
• Regional Breakout of Market (US, Europe, Asia, ROW)
• Competitive Analysis and Market Share

As part of its coverage, the report also has current market size numbers for the following wound care product categories:

• Anti Infectives
• Cleansing
• Debridement
• Dry Dressings/Bandages,
• Moist Dressings
• Biological Dressings
• Pressure Relief
• Negative Pressure Therapy
• Sutures
• Staples
• Adhesives/Sealants
• Tapes
• Miscellaneous Treatments

Besides the always-improving synthetic dressing materials, newer technologies in wound treatment include the xenogeneic tissue scaffold, bilayered human dermal substitutes, recombinant growth factors, endoscopic subfascial ligation of venous perforators, and endovascular arterial repair techniques. New wound care products and devices are entering the market with lightening speed, all striving for the best clinical outcomes.