The coronary stent market has represented a marvelous opportunity for many medical technology companies, but even though it is a huge market now, and has generated enormous cash flow for early entrants, it runs significant risk for current manufacturers as well as those seeking to gain share of this multi-billion dollar global market. The reason is that preconceived notions tend to be strong in this market. There are several such notions that either aren’t well represented by recent trends or may be flat out wrong:
· Bare metal stents will continue to hold a significant share of the coronary stent market due to lingering concerns over drug eluting stents
· Drug-eluting stents have established themselves as unquestionably competitive with coronary artery bypass
· The majority of coronary artery disease caseload will indefinitely be represented by angioplasty/stenting or coronary artery bypass grafting
· Given clinical results, the opportunities for coronary stents are uniform across different geographies
· Robotic, totally endoscopic coronary artery bypass (TECAB) and other advanced technologies to make bypass less traumatic and therefore more competitive with angioplasty/stenting may generate positive clinical results, but economics make them non-competitive
· The nature of healthcare demand for coronary artery disease treatment will make this largely area price insensitive to the pressures of healthcare reform
· Post-surgical restenosis has been adequately addressed by drug-eluting stents, creating a substantial hurdle for competitive anti-restenosis alternatives
Now, admittedly, some of you readers already know where some of the assumptions above have simply gone awry. However, it is striking that medtech markets are often characterized by slow recognition by the industry of the changing drivers and dynamics underpinning market success.
See report #C245, “Worldwide Drug-Eluting, Bare and Other Coronary Stents Market, 2009”.
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