TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--According to Millennium Research Group (MRG), the global authority on medical technology market intelligence, aside from a few more active segments such as flexible endoscopes, the overall European urological device market will grow only slowly, averaging 1.5 percent per year, and reaching a total of more than $1 billion by 2016.
In the mature European urological market there is little feature differentiation between competing urological devices such as male external catheters, urine drainage bags and brachytherapy seeds. The result is strong price competition. Reduced reimbursements and pressure from income-strapped healthcare facilities increase the pressure on manufacturers to reduce average selling prices.
The endoscope segment is an exception to the general stability and maturity of this market. Unit sales of premium-priced flexible endoscopes will continue to grow, increasing market value. These devices help urologists visualize and perform therapy further in the urinary tract than is possible with rigid endoscopes. In addition, the integration of new types of video capabilities is increasing the utility of flexible endoscopes. Recent innovations include the introduction of narrow band imaging and photodynamic diagnostics that can be particularly useful for detection and treatment of bladder cancer.
“Endoscope companies have also been quite successful at selling holmium lasers in Europe,” said MRG Analyst Lexie Code. “Holmium laser technology has become the gold standard for destroying urinary stones and this technology is used through endoscopes. Endoscope companies are also in a particularly favorable position to promote more lucrative single-use holmium laser fibers because they have directly seen endoscopes ruined by overuse of reusable fibers. Cross-selling these two products makes a lot of sense. However, we have yet to see endoscope companies get involved in this market in the United States.”
In general, all segments of the European urological device market are dominated by large multinational manufacturers, such as Bard Urological, Olympus/Gyrus-ACMI, Coloplast and KARL STORZ. As a result of easier device approval, Europe has a greater number of smaller competitors offering low-priced devices than does the United States.
Millennium Research Group’s European Markets for Urological Devices 2012 report includes procedure, unit, average selling price and revenue information, along with market drivers and limiters and competitive landscape for UI devices, stone management devices, urological endoscopes, prostate cancer treatment devices and erectile dysfunction treatment devices in France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.
About Millennium Research Group
Millennium Research Group (www.MRG.net), a Decision Resources Group company (www.DecisionResourcesGroup.com), is the global authority on medical technology market intelligence and the leading provider of strategic information to the healthcare sector. The company provides specialized industry expertise through multiclient market research, ongoing Marketrack™ projects, customer loyalty tracking, facility-level procedure forecasting, and customized solutions.
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