The Future of the Medical Plastics Market

Opportunities for Growth

Vincent Sabourin

• Publisher: Productivity Press
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000482577
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology & Healthcare Industry
• Index: Business

Plastics have occupied an important place in the modern medical industry. It has
substituted traditional devices and products made of metal, other materials, and ceramics.
Over recent years, increased reliance on transparent plastic pharmaceutical and medical
products has produced remarkable breakthroughs that improve medical attention delivery
and allow it to be more comfortable for the masses to live better and longer lives.
The purpose of this handbook is to provide a strategic perspective on the market to
identify opportunities for growth and promising niches in the medical plastics market. It
also helps in analyzing emerging trends in medical plastics to facilitate new product
development.

The medical plastics market is a new field with a broad scope and unending opportunities
for manufacturers and suppliers and medical practitioners from healthcare. With a
combination of the right material and technology, it has a lot to offer to the patients with
affordable pricing. By keeping the worth of the medical plastics market in mind, we have
set some objectives. This book identifies growth factors in the medical plastics market and analyzes critical factors of success to compete. The author presents background on the medical plastics market by its usage, products, processes, and innovation. He also reviews existing studies on the medical plastics market for topics like market size, market growth, segment growth, and geographic markets.

Chapter 1

Overview of the Plastics Market

DOI: 10.4324/9781003212898-1

Plastic could be described as any substance that is an element of an enormous range of synthetic or semi-synthetic solid materials used in creating manufacturing products.

Plastics are polymers that include a top molecular mass and sometimes include other substances to enhance the look and maybe functionality and lower manufacturing costs. The term plastic has its roots in the Greek term plastikos, which means capable of being molded or shaped.

Plastic material is appreciated for being extremely malleable and capable of being machined, cast, extruded, or even pressed into an assortment of styles.

Over the years, the medical plastics market has made progress by introducing advanced plastics in the pharmaceutical market. Polymers are utilized in artificial organs, surgery, or medicine in three ways:

• to create total synthetic substitutes for human organs
• to restore, experience, or maybe augment characteristics of regular organs
• to make a biochemical feature

Plastic is commonly used in the production of several types of medical equipment. Artificial hearts, heart–lung devices, and artificial kidneys are good examples of synthetic organs developed to replace natural organs.

Plastics have a range of attributes required for these applications, including ease of fabrication, substance inertness, and non-toxic qualities, along with a broad range of actual physical characteristics in hardness, freedom, and permeability.

Plastics in medicine have increased the quality of life for older adults and those injured in accidents. Today’s artificial hips and knees depend on plastics to provide individuals with pain-free movement as well as trouble-free joints. The gloves that surgeons wear are made from very soft and pliable plastics, keeping the hospital environment sterile. Plastics tackle healthcare needs small and large, from dishes in the laboratory to the housing of extensive analysis healthcare machinery.

These innovations provide extra cost savings through medical care and equipment usage. In addition, innovations that may be supplied as lightweight, robust, and straightforward health products are now developed for individuals in a home environment.

Health-Related Plastics and Medical Costs

The integration of plastic into modern medicine has progressively risen within the past ten years. Health-related plastics have considerably reduced medical costs. Advanced polymers are adopted to manufacture new as well as enhanced artificial limbs. For example, in disposable products, plastic has become essential in making disposable delivery products, which are crucial in limiting disease threat to individuals. This progress is achieved with medical devices.

In developing a medical unit wherein assembly is needed, manufacturers consider the component layout and the assembly process, the standard style, and procedure management. Design, part size, material, geometry, and end-user specifications have become essential to improve the quality of the product at large.

Growth Overview

Several factors explain the growth of plastics in the medical market.

Plastics as Substitutes

Plastic has substituted for numerous products in the design of medical devices, and there has been an exponential improvement in the mechanical and physical properties of a polymer. It can compete with metal, and the convergence toward this material is already underway.

Numbers of medical plastics are incomparable and superior to traditional materials because they are resistant, lightweight, cheaper, more flexible, and more comfortable. Medical polymers have become a significant element of medical devices leading to the emergence of a new generation of medical technology.

Toward Safer and Simpler Medical Methods

Plastics’ utilization brings a revolution in medicine, rendering individuals safer and methods more straightforward. An excellent example of this is the use of the magnetic resonance image (MRI). An MRI is basically a massive magnet that can draw in some metal items within its range. Metal objects situated near the MRI machine might be dangerous and should be lightweight in case they are attracted by the magnetized device. Today, an MRI’s gear is produced from transparent plastic to guard against this risk. Even tools utilized to set up the MRI are fabricated from plastic.

The Value-Added of Plastic in Medical Devices

In developing a medical unit wherein assembly is needed, manufacturers should consider the component layout and the assembly process, the standard style, and procedure management.

Scope of Plastic Products in the Medical Market

Plastics generally include polyethylene, polypropylene, polyolefins, polyethylene terephthalate, polyethylene terephthalate G, and vinyl chloride. The scope of plastic products in the medical market includes comprehensive product lines and plastic packaging systems such as:

• Bags
• Cartridges
• Nebulizers
• Syringes
• Vials
• Bottles
• Capsules and tablets

Thermoplastic Polymer Elastomers for Medical and Pharmaceutical Applications

Thermoplastic polymer elastomers (TPE) are mainly used for medical and pharmaceutical applications such as tour-niquets, medical films, drip chambers, and connectors. TPE are compounds of high purity that are not very susceptible to filtration and extraction. These qualities are required to ensure patient safety. Moreover, flexibility, lifetime, neutrality, and ease of recycling make it a simple alternative to PVC and thermo-hardened rubber for medical tubes. Also, TPE is more gas impermeable and more flexible than silicon at a lower cost.

Moreover, its transparency and high capacity to resist the different sterilization methods (gamma, ethylene oxide, and steam) are appreciated by the specialists.

Benefits of Medical Plastics

Medical plastics provide a full range of benefits to stakeholders and healthcare service providers.

Improving Medical Equipment

Due to its eco-friendly nature, healthcare polymers help improve medical kit material and diagnostic systems. More specifically, the increasing demand for medical devices due to the rising number of heart diseases, common illnesses, and infections are the main factors behind the tremendous market growth of medical polymers worldwide.

Increasing Health Awareness

Increasing health awareness among developed countries currently also supports the industry.

Increasing Global Geriatric Population

Moreover, globally, the increasing market size of the aged population is a weighty factor behind the growing need for medical products. We review this critical trend in more detail throughout the book.

Market Size and Growth

We could rely on several studies to assess the market size and growth of the medical plastics market. The highlights from Grand View Research, Inc., on the market size and growth are

• The worldwide health-related plastics industry is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.1 percent type between 2019–2025
• The global pharmaceutical unit sector created much more than USD300 billion in the year 2015.
• Devices and equipment applications accounted for over half of the global medical polymers market size in 2019 and projects more than 8 percent CAGR up to 2024.

According to Transparency Market Research, the medical-related plastics business size will grow from USD22.8 billion in 2019 to USD31.7 billion by 2024, at a CAGR of 6.8 percent.

A report issued by Polaris Market Research claims the global health-related plastics marketplace will represent over USD37.5 billion by 2026. The global health-related plastics marketplace has an esti...