Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
From
To
Late disease
Early health
Symptom based
Prevention/prediction
Incomplete data
Detailed patient info
Managing illness
Early diagnosis
Standardized treatment
Targeted therapies
FIGURE 3.2
Shift of current healthcare system from late disease treatment to early health diagnosis.
There are number of factors responsible for the high costs and quality issues, such as inconsis-
tencies in the delivery of healthcare and variable outcomes from region-to-region and hospital-to-
hospital. There is strong need to develop a new business model which will cover:
•
Personalized medicine and targeted therapy
•
From blockbuster to biche buster
Figure 3.2 shows the current scenario of medical science and the health care system, which
is moving from late disease treatment to early health diagnosis. Nanomedicine represents a huge
promise for healthcare and is part of personalized medicine.
•
Conventional medicine is reactive to tissue-level problems occurring at the symptomatic
level. Nanomedicine can diagnose and treat problems at the molecular level and inside
single cells prior to the development of traditional symptoms.
•
Conventional medicine is not readily available in abundance for humanity because it is
sophisticated, expensive, and labor-intensive. Nanomedicine can be much more preventive,
comparatively inexpensive because it will minimize the use of expensive human experts,
and can be more readily mass produced and distributed.
•
There is a potential for greatly improved “directed therapies” for treating cancer and car-
diovascular diseases using new nano-drug/gene delivery systems.
•
Tiny, implantable devices can monitor health.
•
Tiny, implantable devices with nanobiosensors can treat chronic diseases (diabetes, cardio-
vascular issues, arthritis, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's) with fewer side effects.
•
New point-of-care and home healthcare devices can develop.
3.2.1 N
aNoMedIcINe
: g
loBal
s
ceNarIo
According to a survey by BCC Research (www.bccresearch.com), the total, global sales of nano-
medicine reached $72.8 billion in 2011 and is expected to increase to $130.9 billion in 2016, a five-
year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.5%. The market for nanomedicine can be broken
down into six main segments based on therapeutic applications: cardiovascular, anti-inlammatories,
anti-infectives, central nervous system (CNS) products, anticancers, and other applications.
The cardiovascular segment of the market, worth $4 billion in 2011, is expected to increase
at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 16.5% to reach $8.6 billion in 2016. The anti-
inflammatories segment of the market, worth $7.3 billion in 2011, is expected to increase at a CAGR
of 15.2% to reach $14.8 billion in 2016. The anti-infectives segment was valued at $9.3 billion in
