TORONTO, Oct. 26 /PRNewswire/ — According to Millennium
Research Group (MRG), the global authority on medical technology
market intelligence, reimbursement changes have caused the demand
for intermittent catheters to increase significantly. In April
2008, Medicare changed reimbursement to cover up to 200 catheters
per month, instead of the previous 4 that it covered. Over the
past two years, market growth has been fueled by patients who have
switched to a single-use regimen. There is, however, still
tremendous growth potential in this market because the majority of
patients who regularly use intermittent catheters are still
generally comfortable reusing catheters because this has been a
standard practice for many years. These patients typically use only
four or five catheters per month.
Supported by its strong sales force, Coloplast had over 50% of
the market in 2009, with C.R. Bard, Astra Tech, Rusch, and
Hollister also accounting for a notable share in this segment that
year. A substantial sales force is necessary to develop appropriate
relationships with health care providers — in order to ensure that
prescriptions are being written specifically for a manufacturer’s
device — and with distributors — in order to ensure that they
promote specific devices to end users. The dominant presence of
larger competitors in this market and their existing relationships
with health care providers and distributors may therefore prevent
smaller competitors from entering or being more successful in this
segment.
“In order to be successful, manufacturers will need to develop
these relationships with health care providers and medical product
distributors,” says Aaron McCracken, Principal Analyst at MRG.
“Companies will also need to brand their products directly to
patients to ensure that they ask for a specific brand when ordering
catheters from a distributor.”
