To the surprise of no one, the med-tech industry is finding that there is, still, plenty of room at the bottom, to paraphrase physicist and nanotechnology pioneer Richard Feynman. The global medical market for nanotechnology applications accounted for approximately US$1.7 billion in 2007. The vast majority of this revenue–nearly 90%–was generated by pharmaceutical applications. In the years ahead, however, nanotechnology applications in the medical device arena are forecast to surge, while its use in drug-related activities contracts. Those are some of the findings of a report titled Global Medical Markets for Nanoscale Materials and Devices.

BCC Research, which will issue the report this month, predicts that the use of nanotech-related materials, tools, and devices will attain a compound annual growth rate between 14.9% and 19.9% by 2018, potentially generating US$9.4 billion in revenue. By that time, the report predicts that pharma will account for 51% of the medical share of nanotech applications, whereas medical devices and medical research may account for as much as 20% each.¹

¹MedTech Insider; Norbert Sparrow

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