Market Leaders: Double-Balloon Endoscope
The endoscopes market comprises the majority of the total market and is expected to increase by almost 50 percent by 2018. This is due largely to the double-balloon endoscope, developed by Fujinon in 2004 to give physicians access to the entire small bowel, an area that was previously only partially accessible by an endoscope. This has resulted in improved diagnosis of small bowel diseases, positively affecting thousands of lives in the United States.
Emerging Market: Patient Monitoring Capsules
The emerging market for patient-monitoring capsules is set to take advantage of untapped demand for motility diagnosis and monitoring devices. A capsule endoscopy procedure requires a disposable camera capsule, a data recorder to record the data transmitted by the capsule, and a workstation to view the data collected; therefore, the market for capsule endoscopy encompasses all three devices.
Since one camera capsule is used per procedure, the number of camera capsules purchased increases proportionally with the number of procedures performed and constitutes a majority of sales in the market.
Because one workstation and one data recorder can be used for many procedures, these segments represent a smaller share of the entire market. Last year the market for capsule endoscopy declined as a result of weaker demand for the procedure. As the baby boomer generation ages, demand for small bowel screening will increase, driving growth in the number of capsule endoscopy procedures being performed. Rising rates of obesity and the unhealthy lifestyle led by many Americans will also induce growth in the number of small bowel disease incidences, and consequently in the number of performed procedures. Demand for less invasive screening procedures will continue to drive growth in the U.S. capsule endoscopy market.
