NEW YORK -- With continuing incidences of needlestick injuries in the worldwide healthcare environment and high consumer demand for syringe alternatives, the market for needle-free injection systems and safety syringes is soaring-with some sectors growing in excess of 20 percent annually, and should reach $2.49 billion by 2009, according to a new study from market research firm Kalorama Information, a division of MarketResearch.com, a leading provider of industry-specific market research reports.
Annual needlestick injuries in the U.S. alone average 600,000 to 1 million, and estimates indicate that as many as 80 percent of the incidents could be prevented with the use of needle-free devices and safety syringes.
Needle-free Injection Systems and Safety Syringes: The Market for Alternatives to Needle-based Delivery predicts that the exorbitant costs associated with needlesticks -- costing institutions over $3,000 per injury even when no infection occurs -- coupled with other factors, such as patient fear of needles and the resulting lack of compliance, are strong enough drivers to grow the market by a compounded annual rate of 11 percent over the next four years.
Whether the devices are insulin pens for diabetics or mono-dose vaccine injectors, developing newer and safer ways of administering a wide variety of drug therapies is here to stay, even if such devices do come with a higher price tag.
"Certainly the development, testing, regulatory approval, and eventual mass manufacturing of such devices is not cheap, yet the costs need to be continually weighed against the greater benefit to global health," notes Joseph Constance, the report's author. "With newer injectable drugs coming to market and incidences of diseases requiring injectables, such as diabetes, escalating worldwide, the need for safer devices will continue to grow the market."
Source: Kalorama Information
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