DEMAND FOR MORE RELIABLE IMPLANTABLE DEVICES BOOSTING BIOMATERIALS MARKET

The market for biomaterials is expanding as medical device manufacturers seek to integrate lighter, safer, sturdier materials into implantable products such as drug-eluting stents, an analyst said in a recent briefing.

Biomaterials are used to replace a living system or part of a living tissue, Frost & Sullivan research analyst Srimathy Raghuraman said. She added that they are most commonly used with other materials, rather than on their own.

Drug-eluting stents are "a major research area" in the biomaterials field, Raghuraman said. The increasing demand for safer, more effective drug-eluting stents, especially for diabetic patients, is likely to fuel the demand for new biomaterials over the next three years, she noted.

Biodegradable polymers, a new class of polymers designed to decompose after fulfilling their purpose, are one of the more likely applications for drug-eluting stents moving forward, she suggested.

( http://www.fdanews.com/ddl/34_9/ )