Nuclear Medicine Market - Opportunity For Emerging Industry Participants

Industry : Pharmaceuticals    

As per the World Health Organization’s (WHO) definition, nuclear medicine are the specialized medicines containing radioisotopes intended to be used for diagnostics and therapeutic purposes. High activity and long term adverse effects increase their demand which imposes stringent production and distribution regulations on these medicines.

The increasing R&D activities in this industry is fostering influx of new molecules as well as the new treatment options for various conditions such as respiratory disorders, thyroid disorders, and bone diseases. These emerging applications of nuclear pharmaceuticals are anticipated to open avenues for market players, hence ensuring future growth potential.

Over the period of time about 100 radioactive molecules have been discovered and their diagnostic as well as therapeutic applications are unleashed. Though this industry is evolving and there is swift growth in the market revenues, the players are facing several challenges related to production.

These challenges can be summarized as follows:

• Shorter shelf-life of nuclear medicine restricts uses and distribution

• The production process unlike traditional pharmaceuticals is complex and manufacturers have to bear additional cost to maintain the nuclear reactor.

• Furthermore, currently the production is at smaller capacity compared to conventional medicines, complying with cGMP, QA and QC standards.

Considering these challenges and presence of few players operating at global nuclear medicine market level molecules such as Technetium-99m, which is used most widely, is facing severe shortage. This, further opens up opportunity for emerging market players.

"Suppliers Catering to Nuclear Medicine Market Within the Asia Pacific Region"

 

So far the focus has been over diagnostic aspects of nuclear medicine, however, this focus is shifting towards therapeutic areas of these molecules. Emerging applications in the field of oncology, thyroid, bone metastasis, and lymphoma is expected to open opportunities in aforementioned treatment areas. For instance, advent of radio-labeled antibodies enabled targeted therapy in treatment of cancer. Radio-labeled antibodies only attach to target site and provide radiation effect directly to the cancer cell.

The Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) scan helps accurate diagnosis. PET can be used for analyzing glucose metabolism, or cancer diagnosis,while SPECT technique is used for the diagnosis of wide range of diseases and conditions including neurological disorders, cardiovascular conditions, and thyroid-related conditions. The accuracy of the SPECT diagnosis is better than other non-radiopharmaceutical techniques. However, the cost of SPECT devices, and hence its use, is comparatively higher than non-radiopharmaceutical devices. Increasing usage of PET and SPECT scans is anticipated to boost the market growth of nuclear medicine.

Though this industry has many entry barriers,rising interest and awareness is anticipated to attract many players in the nuclear medicine market with heavy investment in developing newer solutions. The major players in radiopharmaceutical market includes Eckert & Ziegler Group, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, GE Healthcare, Bracco Imaging S.p.A, Nordion, Inc,NTP Radioisotopes SOC Ltd and Eczacibasi-Monrol.

  In-depth report on global nuclear medicine market by Grand View Research:

https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/nuclear-medicines-market