Med-Tech Innovation Industry News
Ambitious orthopaedics market
Orthopaedics is one of the fast growing sectors in the industry. Espicom forecasts a worldwide market valued at US$46.8 billion by 2015, compared with US$36.5 billion in 2010. The market in Western Europe has experienced average annual growth of nearly 9% since 2004, with growth expected to increase by 5% annually over the next five years. At the heart of every successful or ambitious orthopaedic company is its product portfolio, says Espicom. Already, market changes have seen better and longer lasting implants being developed, together with new procedures that can make traditional treatment approaches redundant overnight. Products need to do more than just treat ailments, they must be cost- effective. The latest edition of its report, “Orthopaedics: Surveying the Global Competitive Landscape” analyses 50 of the companies that it believes are making a significant impression on their chosen area of speciality in the spine, knee, hip trauma, arthroscopy, extremities and orthobiologics segments.
www.espicom.com
Ophthalmics are looking good
The European diagnostic and interventional ophthalmic device market is expected to be worth more than US$1 billion by 2017, according to a new report by iData Research. Growth in this market will be the result of an increase in cataract, glaucoma and refractive surgeries, particularly in Germany, France and the UK. New technologies are also driving sales. “Improvements in resolution and performance of optical coherence tomography devices from Carl Zeiss Meditec and Heidelberg Engineering are driving replacement sales in the mature markets of Germany and Italy, while growth is expected to accelerate in France and the UK, which have been slower to adopt the technology,” said Dr Kamran Zamanian, CEO of iData. “The overall ophthalmic device market will also be fuelled by intraocular lens and phacoemulsification console sales due to the rising incidence of cataracts associated with a growing elderly population in Europe. More than 50% of adults over the age of 75 are affected by cataracts, the leading cause of blindness worldwide.”
www.idataresearch.net
New cost-saving online patent inspection service
A free patent service launched by the UK’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) removes unnecessary costs for businesses requesting patent documents. The new online service, called Ipsum, makes these available for free at the click of a button.
The service is open to anyone and benefits businesses researching patents, attorneys protecting clients’ IP rights and potential inventors looking for the best way to find information on patent applications. It can help them understand why a patent was granted or rejected or know more about particular patents. Ipsum is updated in real time and is available on the IPO website.
www.ipo.gov.uk
www.med-techinnovation.com Nanotechnology funding on offer
The Technology Strategy Board in partnership with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council is investing £9 million in grant funding to support highly innovative collaborative research projects focused on nanoscale technology enabled solutions for the healthcare sector. The competition encourages applications for business-led projects focusing on the targeted delivery of therapeutic agents and diagnostics where nanoscale technologies are at the heart of the innovation. The aim of the investment is to help ensure that the UK can become an early competitive adopter of these novel technologies by translating world-class early stage ideas from academia and commercialising them through building supply chains with innovative businesses. The Nanoscale Technology Enabled Healthcare competition opens on 1 November 2011 and applications must be received by 13 December 2011. For more information visit the website.
www.innovateuk.org
Ireland successfully collaborates
Ireland’s science agency, Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), has reported a 44% increase in researcher collaborations with industry, and a 12 % growth in international academic partnerships, according to its annual report. The report showed a further impressive 12% rise in international
academic partnerships was also achieved to leverage significant additional scientific knowledge from SFI-funded research. “Such a massive increase in the total number of collaborations, now standing at 867 and up from 601 in 2009, is certainly to be lauded and is in keeping with the Government’s agenda to facilitate greater commercialisation of research,” the Minister for Research and Innovation at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Seán Sherlock, TD, told Silicon Republic. “The very impressive increases in SFI-funded collaborations, whether via multinational corporations (up 32% to a total of 237) or the SME sector (up 63 % to 245) shows that forging relationships with critical sectors is being prioritised by our academic community in unison with enterprise. This is where science needs to be in the context of helping to engineer economic rejuvenation in Ireland over the coming years.” Source:
www.siliconrepublic.com;
www.sfi.ie
November/December 2011 ¦ 09
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