Medtech is booming and there are many start-ups looking to take market share from established OEMs. But which sectors are driving this growth and which start-ups are the ones to watch, asks Chemigraphic’s NPI director, John Johnston?
As much as 10% of GDP is spent on healthcare – and around 7.2% of this goes to medical technologies.
The European medtech market is worth €110 billion and it’s growing at a significant rate as new ways of delivering health care are developed.
- In vitro diagnostics is the largest sector, followed closely by cardiology – with both these areas predicted a 6% CAGR leading up to 2022.
- Global oncology spend is forecast to reach $200 billion by 2022.
- Imaging diagnostics: in the UK alone, the NHS performs over 45 million procedures annually. The UK’s diagnostic imaging equipment market will reach $2.63 billion in 2020.
- Medical wearables: the wearable medical device market is forecast to be worth €24.4 billion by 2023.
- With real-time imaging available, the global cardiac imaging software market should reach $530 million by 2023.
Enter the start-ups
The Office for Life Science calculates that 80% of UK healthtech businesses are SMEs, employing 23% of staff and generating 10% of turnover.
Medtech start-ups are in the top ten of the most profitable small businesses – returning an average net profit margin of 12.1%.
The rise of the start-up is facilitated by the agility of small businesses to move fast – and in this they are helped by partnering with sophisticated and experienced EMS partners.
When it comes to choosing five British and Irish start-ups that are going to disrupt the medtech sector there’s no shortage of candidates. We’ve picked one from the five main areas of growth in the sector.
Oncology: Kheiron Medical Technologies
Breast cancer survival in the UK is improving, and has doubled in the past 40 years, but earlier detection through screening and a faster diagnosis could improve these figures.
This London-based medtech start-up uses machine learning to help radiologists detect early signs of cancer with greater accuracy and faster than ever before. It is the first start-up to receive a CE Mark in deep learning and radiology and is working closely with the NHS to deploy Mia across pilot sites. Funding has also been secured to scale across the EU.
Medical wearables: GiveVision
London-based GiveVision offers innovative solutions that empower blind or visually impaired people to live independently. It is developing solutions for people diagnosed with low vision due to central vision loss (eg. AMD, Stargate’s) and conditions affecting the whole visual field (eg albinism, optic neuritis).
It has already brought a product to market that powers smart glasses to be used as eyes for blind people. SightPlus converts visual information into audio cues and can magnify visual perspective, allowing the reading of books, find a seat on a bus, recognise banknotes and many other activities we take for granted.
Cardiology: Vivasure
Vivasure, based in Galway, Ireland, makes polymer implants and delivery systems – primarily for minimally invasive vessel closure in cardiology, interventional radiology and vascular surgery. In 2016, its first European product – a vascular closure device – attracted investors to back it to the value of over €16 million. Its lead product is a fully absorbable, patch-based large-bore percutaneous closure device. This device enables closure of large arteriotomies in transcatheter procedures.
Imaging and diagnostics: Incereb
Based in Dublin, Incereb has developed a range of paediatric, neonatal and foetal sensors for EEG monitoring that can be applied in minutes, with minimal training.
Incereb has found a solution to attaching EEGs to a baby’s head to determine brain function without needing a lot of time, trained member or causing discomfort for the baby.
The Incereb design has already gained FDA approval, and simplifies the electrode application into an innovative single electrode array which allows nursing staff with minimal training to align the central reference lead to the baby’s scalp.
General medtech: Coroflo
Coroflo has developed a breastfeeding shield and monitor, the Coro, which can measure how much breast milk a baby is consuming. The sensor is non-invasive, easy to use, comfortable and tiny: there’s no need for wires or chargers. It connects to your phone to monitor feed volumes, store the data and analyse it.
