of the international market, which is set
to grow to $10.93 billion by 2020, has to
be significant.
However, a new report by
Transparency Market Research (TMR)
on medical device coatings said the region’s share of the global market cannot
be ignored anymore because of “
increasing healthcare awareness and rising disposable income in emerging economies.”
“Demand for medical device coatings
is likely to rise in the near future due to
the rise in epidemic and chronic diseases
in Africa,” the report said.
This is good news for the manufacturers of medical devices, who are assured
of a growing market, which in turn could
trigger growth in the medical device coatings market.
Medical device coatings are ap-
plied to various medical devices used
in health institutions such as surgi-
cal instruments, in vitro diagnostic
devices, artificial implants, electro-
medical equipment, dental handling
and ophthalmic instruments ac-
cording to the report. The coatings
applied on these medical devices
“augment product surface function
and improve performance.”
According to another earlier report
“medical device coatings help reduce
friction between devices and tissues and
provide surface coverage, wetting, uni-
form adhesion, wear-resistance and coat-
ing homogeneity.”
Like many developing economies, the
report said growth of Africa’s medical
device coatings between 2014 and 2020
will be driven mainly by the growth of
the region’s economies and increased gov-
ernment expenditure in healthcare.
South Africa and Nigeria are some
of the most promising medical device
coatings markets in Africa whose main
growth is supported by increased healthcare expenditure and rolling out of health
care schemes that could increase demand
for medical device imports.
Business Monitor International (BMI),
for example, said in South Africa, the
medical device market will be fuelled by
the public private partnerships in the de-
velopment of the country’s hospitals de-
spite concerns of a possible restraint from
the depreciating local currency against
the U.S. dollar and sluggish economic
growth prospects.
“The long term growth prospects of
the South African medical device market will be strongly influenced by the
government’s policies in regard to the
National Health Insurance scheme, the
promotion of public-private partnerships to develop and upgrade hospitals,
the serious shortage of healthcare personnel and an urgent need to effectively
address the AIDS crisis in the country,”
said BMI.
The South Africa medical devices
market, which was estimated at $1.2
billion, BMI said, relies 90 percent on
imports to meet demand, although the
country manufactured up to $200 million worth of medical devices by 2013,
according to the analyst.
Nigeria medical device market, on the
other hand, has “exhibited encouraging
growth after several years of stagnation,”
according to BMI.
“The long-term growth prospects of
the Nigerian medical device market will
be strongly influenced by the govern-
ment’s policies in regards to investment
under the National Strategic Health
Development Plan of 2010-2015, the
shortage of healthcare personnel and a
need to address the poor healthcare indi-
cators of the country.”
The West Africa country’s medi-
cal device market relies solely on im-
ports to meet its increasing demand
with BMI saying the value of Nigeria’s
medical device market stood at $154
million by 2013.
As noted by TMR, an anticipated
upsurge of chronic diseases in Africa is
likely to increase demand for medical
device coatings and so will the increase
in disposable income among some of the
continent’s one billion people.
The coatings market growth will
also be pegged on the determination by
African countries, especially those that
are Africa Union members to increase to
at least 15 percent of their national budgets to health spending under the 2001
Abuja declaration on health.
By 2010 Rwanda, Botswana, Zambia
and Togo had already complied with
the Abuja declaration, while another 22
countries are said to spend at least 10
percent to 15 percent of their total na-
tional budgets on the health sector.
Going forward, performance of
Africa’s medical devices coatings is ex-
pected to show slow growth, accord-
ing to the TMR report, because like
many developing regions, the conti-
nent’s manufacture of medical devices
is minimal.
TMR said the value of the global mar-
ket for medical device coatings stood at
$6.63 billion in 2013 “and is projected to
reach $10.93 billion in 2020.”
“Demand for medical devices manufacturing is anticipated to rise between
2014 and 2020 led by growth of the
medical devices manufacturing industry
in countries such as India, China, and
South Korea,” the report said.
Key constraints to the growth of the
medical device coatings market include
the “volatility in prices of raw materials
and stringent environmental regulations”
especially in Europe. CW
“The South Africa
medical devices
market, which was
estimated by BMI at
$1.2 billion, relies 90
percent on imports
to meet demand,
although the country
manufactured up to
$200 million worth of
medical devices by
2013, according to
the analyst.”
