In Brief October 2006
Executive Summary
Short summaries of notable clinical and product news items in the device industry.
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Evalve: Leading the Valve Revolution
Full-scale commercialization of percutaneous heart valve technology is still years away, but Evalve's new approach to mitral repair is closest to the clinic.
Neurostimulation's Billion-Dollar Markets
Beyond the functional stimulation of muscles to get them moving, electrical stimulation can also operate on blood vessels, membranes, and receptors-targets in the body once regarded as the domain of pharmaceuticals. Indeed, driving sales of $2 billion in the neurostimulation industry in 2005 and growth rates of almost 20% going forward, are large-market clinical indications that haven't been well-served by drugs: pain, epilepsy, depression, stroke, urinary incontinence, Parkinson's disease, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. For some of these disorders, chronic neurostimulation-of the deep brain, the spinal cord, the vagus and other nerves-promises site-specific, side-effect free and reversible therapies that have the potential to be efficacious where drugs can't.
Neuromodulation: Devices's Stimulating Growth Market
According to "Opportunities in Global Medical Devices and Diagnostics," a report recently published by Health Research International that forecasts growth rates in seven major clinical segments and 20 major technology segments, neuromodulation will experience the highest growth rate of all the top-tier segments over the next five years, in excess of 18%. The neuromodulation segment posted sales of approximately $1.7 billion in 2005 and will be worth almost $4 billion in 2010, HRI predicts.