Market Opportunity
AMS participates in the US$15 billion global market for woundcare products, which is growing at an annual rate of 9%. This includes all dressings and wound closure products. The estimated annual sales of advanced woundcare products is US$3.2 billion and the tissue adhesives segment of the wound closure market for both topical and internal adhesives is valued at US$750 million a year. The size of the market currently addressed by the AMS product range is approximately US$700 million.
Advanced Woundcare Market
The market for advanced woundcare products is driven by the clinical requirement for the treatment of chronic wounds and burns.
The former are often linked with diabetes, of which there are an estimated 150 million sufferers worldwide, 10-15% of whom will develop chronic ulcers. The demographics of an ageing population, increasing obesity and growing wealth amongst the elderly will accelerate demand for advanced woundcare dressings.
The market for products used to treat ulcers is estimated at US$6 billion, but currently less than 35% of this is represented by advanced woundcare. As medical practitioners become more aware of the advantages of using alginate dressings, and a more prosperous elderly population (notably the baby boomers) are willing to pay extra, the share will increase to the detriment of traditional woundcare products.
The market for the treatment of burns is estimated to be in the region of US$60 million each year.
Wound Closure & Sealants Market
Wound closure products are used to help the healing process for deep cuts and surgical wounds. The market for wound closure is estimated at US$5 billion globally and this includes all sutures, staples and tissue adhesives. The global demand for topical tissue adhesives is estimated at about US$150 million, 70% in the USA, but the potential is far greater given that adhesives could replace much of the market for staples, estimated at about US$1 billion.
Tissue adhesives utilise cyanoacrylate (CA). These are fast setting, high tensile strength polymer adhesives capable of binding and sealing the skin with a transparent, waterproof, flexible and durable coating. The advantage of using tissue adhesives over traditional staples is not just the additional sealing properties, but also because no further treatment is required, whereas staples have to be removed.
The CA technology has also generated another application using a different formulation of the polymers. The ability of the liquid to form a seal which can prevent infection has inspired the development of a new product for use in the operating theatre which protects surgical incisions from bacterial migration. Current statistics suggest that 2-5% of surgical procedures result in an infected wound and given that there are approximately 60 million surgical operations worldwide each year, this translates to significant numbers of infected surgical wounds.