Global sterilisation market to reach US$4.2bn by 2017, report predicts
Asian market will help drive growth owing to awareness of benefits
The global sterilisation market, valued at US$3.1bn last year, is estimated to reach $4.2bn by 2017 at a CAGR of 6.1%, according to a new report by ASD Reports of The Netherlands.
The report, Sterilisation Market – Global Forecast To 2017, analyses the major market drivers, restraints, and opportunities in North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (RoW).
The sterilisation market has dynamically improved from moist heat sterilisation (steam) to Ethylene Oxide (EtO), gamma radiation and low temperature gas plasma sterilisation, and to recent technologies such as NO2-based sterilisation, the report says.
The governments of various countries are taking regulatory actions to fortify hospitals with essential sterilisation standards and prevent infections. Hospitals and medical care centres are using variety of technology options to reduce the incidence rate of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs).
The rise in regulations imposed by authorities in several developed nations, has led many companies to outsource their sterilisation activities to third parties
Pharmaceutical sterilisation is mainly done using filtration technologies and gamma irradiation of pharmaceutical components and ingredients. The role of sterilisation in medical packaging has been of crucial importance, especially of finished products such as saline bottles, needles and syringes.
In life sciences applications such as research laboratories, steam sterilisation (autoclaves) is widely practised to avoid any decontamination of media, culture, equipment, and glassware.
Steam/moist heat sterilisation, despite being the oldest method, is still the most preferred in a healthcare setting due to its ease of use and low costs compared with low temperature sterilisation. The most frequently used chemicals for sterilisation include ethylene oxide and hydrogen peroxide. E-beam and low-temperature hydrogen peroxide gas plasma (LTHPGP) sterilisation techniques are gaining popularity over conventional methods, the report says.
The rise in regulations imposed by authorities in several developed nations, has led many companies to outsource their sterilisation activities to third parties; a trend that has helped OEMs of medical devices to reduce their costs substantially.
The major players in the contract sterilisation market are Steris Isomedix (US), Sterigenics (US), Synergy Health (UK), Medivators (US) and Nordion (Canada).
The in-house sterilisation market will grow faster than contract sterilisation in the near future
The report says the in-house sterilisation market will grow faster than contract sterilisation in the near future, as the acceptability of technologies such as VHP and H2O2 gas plasma increases.
The US and Europe are the major markets for sterilisation. But the report says the Asian market will see favourable growth in the coming years, primarily due to a rise in awareness of the benefits of sterilisation, a growing ageing population, an increase in the number of operations, and growth in per capita income.
The major players include Getinge (Sweden), Steris (US), Sterigenics (US), Sakura (Japan), 3M (US), Cantel Medical (US), and Advanced Sterilization Product (US).
