$15 Billion Worldwide Catheter Market Poised for Growth

New York, November 5, 2006 — While much of the global market for catheters can be considered mature, many sectors in the $15 billion industry are poised for growth in the next five years. According to the latest market research from Kalorama Information, The Worldwide Market for Catheters: 2006 Update, growth drivers are primarily due to the increasingly elderly world population and ailments associated with aging.

As a result of age-related illness, catheter usage in hospitals, nursing homes, and the homecare sector has been increasing steadily over the last several years. This has led to challenges posed by increased nosocomial infections and re-use rates which have been effectively addressed by manufacturers who have developed innovative drug coated catheters to address these concerns.

Indeed, innovation is as key to market growth as the increasing aging population. For example, the coronary catheter market remains one of the biggest and fastest growing segments of the overall global market. This segment stands at $5.5 billion and is growing at a double digit pace. It accounts for about 52 percent of the total market in terms of value. Unlike some of the other catheter segments, the coronary segment has undergone enormous changes with highly innovative, effective, minimally invasive devices being brought to the market.

Yet, as in many other healthcare sectors, such premium technologies are more the luxury of the West, as much of the rest of the world struggles to afford the premium price.

“The demand for premium, high cost catheters is moderate to low in Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America, unlike the U.S., Europe and Japan which are the dominant markets,” notes Joseph Constance, the report’s author. “However, there has been an increasing demand for simple, easy-to-use catheters on these fronts which should continue to help drive market growth in these less prosperous countries.”

Providing market forecasts for each catheter segment including urological, coronary, intravenous, oximetry, therodilution, suction, and wound drainage, The Worldwide Market for Catheters provides the raw market data from a global perspective. It is available from Kalorama Information by clicking http://www.kaloramainformation.com/pub/1190874.html. It is also available at MarketResearch.com.

About Kalorama Information
Kalorama Information, a division of MarketResearch.com, supplies the latest in independent market research for the life sciences. For more information, contact Tom Ehart at 240-747-3014 or tehart@marketresearch.com, or visit www.KaloramaInformation.com