TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--According to Millennium Research Group (MRG), the global authority on medical technology market intelligence, the heart valve markets in Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC), while growing at a healthy rate of more than seven percent annually, present specific challenges to large multinationals seeking to gain market share. Obstacles include local competitors, low market differentiation, a lack of local physicians trained in sophisticated heart-valve replacement procedures and strong downward pressures on prices.
Domestic manufacturers have strong existing connections with local healthcare systems, and take advantage of lower production costs to compete by offering lower-priced devices, particularly established designs of mechanical valves.
“India shows the drawbacks of looking for revenue in emerging markets most clearly,” said MRG Analyst Ian Swanson. “The number of potential patients among its 1.2 billion population would seem to be large. However, the cash-strapped public health system reimburses these devices at a rate that shaves margins to the minimum. Private health insurance can allow for better reimbursements, but currently covers barely two percent of the population—24 million people. As a result, heart valve manufacturers actually find themselves competing for the small fraction of the population that can afford more expensive devices. The problem is less dramatic in the other countries, but still significant.”
Unlike Europe and the United States, the BRIC markets predominantly favor the long-term durability of mechanical valves. This is largely due to the earlier age of replacement because of the high prevalence of rheumatic fever. The valve damage that results from rheumatic fever requires early valve replacement, and favors a longer-lived valve.
Tissue heart valves represent an increasing percentage of the heart valve replacement mix in each of these countries, driven primarily by an aging population. Elderly patients don’t require the long life of a mechanical valve, and tissue valves avoid the anticoagulant therapy required for mechanical valves. Transcatheter heart valve devices, though increasingly popular in Europe and the United States, are not going to have significant penetration into these markets before 2016.
Millennium Research Group’s BRIC Markets for Heart Valve Devices 2012 report includes procedure, unit, average selling price and revenue information, along with market drivers and limiters and competitive landscape for heart valve replacement devices and heart valve repair devices in Brazil, Russia, India and China.
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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