Technavio’s latest global spinal implants market report highlights three key emerging trends predicted to impact market growth through 2020. Technavio defines an emerging trend as something that has potential for significant impact on the market and contributes to its growth or decline.
“Open spinal surgeries can cause retraction of muscles that can damage soft tissues, resulting in post-operative pain and a longer recovery period. This has led to the shift from open spinal procedures to MI methods for implantation of devices,” said Barath Palada, one of Technavio’s lead industry analysts for life sciences.
“Benefits of MI spinal surgeries, particularly of MI lumbar fusion and facet fixation, have encouraged many people to undergo these procedures, thus fueling the demand and sales of spinal implants in the market,” added Barath.
Technavio’s market research study identifies the following three emerging trends expected to propel the global spinal implants market:
- Physician-owned spinal implant distributorships
- Increased spinal non-fusion procedures
- Contract manufacturing
Physician-owned spinal implant distributorships
In physician-owned distributorships, physicians or surgeons can endorse, distribute, or sell implants to hospitals or can recommend them for people with spinal disorders. This allows physicians and surgeons generate more income. This business model eliminates the need for sales representatives. The model also allows physicians to facilitate product purchases from large-sized to small-sized companies and sell spinal implants at a lower price compared to their market value. A research study in the US estimates that one in five spinal fusion surgeries billed to Medicare for reimbursement falls under this business model. As most hospitals are purchasing spinal implants from physician-owned distributors, vendors are collaborating with physicians to increase product sales. For instance, Reliance Medical Systems has more than 10 physician-owned distributorships that are selling its spinal fusion devices in the US.
Increased spinal non-fusion procedures
Many medical facilities are opting for spinal non-fusion procedures over fusion procedures. This is because spinal non-fusion procedures help preserve mobility and stability of the spine while eliminating back and leg pain when lifting heavy loads. These factors help obtain better clinical outcomes compared to spinal fusion procedures. The popularity of spinal non-fusion procedures has made vendors develop and introduce associated devices in areas of artificial disc replacement, dynamic stabilization, and interspinous process decompression. Rise in incidences of spinal disorders will increase the number of spinal non-fusion procedures and associated procedures in the future.
Contract manufacturing
Contract manufacturing or outsource manufacturing helps minimize the cost pressure of OEMs. Contract manufacturers specialize in the manufacture of spinal implants and on-time delivery of devices, which in turn increases the implants’ popularity among physicians and their cost-effectiveness. Contract manufacturers use advanced technologies such as implant-grade polyetheretherketone (PEEK) spacers to manufacture spinal implants for 3D printing. PEEK materials are biocompatible and can be used as alternatives to metal spinal implants. During spinal fusion, PEEK materials also provide better motion preservation and dynamic stabilization compared to metal implants.
Contract manufacturers work with more than one client at a time, with similar types of products. These manufacturers receive requests in bulk and purchase significant volumes of materials from suppliers at a subsided cost to develop products for different OEMs at the same time. This helps contract manufacturers reduce the cost of manufacturing and saves the client’s (OEMs) capital. This is a win-win deal for OEMs, as it helps them minimize product procurement costs from contract manufacturers.
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Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. The company develops over 2000 pieces of research every year, covering more than 500 technologies across 80 countries. Technavio has about 300 analysts globally who specialize in customized consulting and business research assignments across the latest leading edge technologies.
Technavio analysts employ primary as well as secondary research techniques to ascertain the size and vendor landscape in a range of markets. Analysts obtain information using a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches, besides using in-house market modeling tools and proprietary databases. They corroborate this data with the data obtained from various market participants and stakeholders across the value chain, including vendors, service providers, distributors, re-sellers, and end-users.http://www.technavio.com/