Medtech 2022/2023: seeking sustainable growth

Article tags In-vitro diagnosticsSurgical deviceGlobalIVD GatewaySurgical Gateway

Global healthcare spending growth will continue to slow despite rising costs in 2023. Healthcare spending will also continue to fall in real terms, as it fails to keep pace with high inflation.

We examine how key market trends in 2022 will carry on their impact on medtech sectors in 2023.

Covid-19 impact on medtech markets cools

Opportunistic growth opportunities from covid-19 have helped fuel rapid growth for IVD companies. Chinese companies racked up a more than 10-fold increase in exports of laboratory reagents since February 2020. US and Germany exports of laboratory reagents increased by between 30-40% over pre-pandemic levels. However, according to data from Clearstate’s IVD Gateway, in 2022 the growth rate in many markets has slowed compared with 2021, indicating the difficulty in sustaining growth. As global demand for covid-19 testing cools further in 2023, seeking sustainable growth opportunities will be a key theme in the coming years. 

Surgical device markets will continue to recover in 2023 as surgery volumes increase. However, surgery volume, and consequently surgical device markets have not fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Hospitals still struggle to clear the large backlog of surgery cases because of manpower challenges and capacity issues. In markets such as Asia-Pacific, Clearstate estimates that it will take until early 2024 to see elective surgery volume returning to pre-pandemic levels.

New regulatory systems and price reform

Key regulatory milestones in 2022 include the implementation of the In Vitro Diagnostic Medical Devices Regulation (IVDR) in Europe and the Unique Device Identification (UDI) globally.

In China, price reform for medical devices covering surgical devices, consumables and IVD has accelerated since 2022 and is expected to continue into 2024.

Other infectious diseases back in the spotlight

New infectious disease outbreaks such as the monkeypox outbreak and a resurgence of respiratory viruses as pandemic measures loosen have emerged in 2022. Increasing government investment to strengthen the response to emerging and re-emerging infectious disease is boosting access to infectious disease testing. Infectious disease is the fastest-growing area in immunoassay testing in markets such as Latin America. In Asia-Pacific, the increased incidence of infectious disease has driven immunoassay and molecular testing in the area.

Fri, 06th Jan 2023 Article tags In-vitro diagnosticsSurgical deviceGlobalIVD GatewaySurgical Gateway