Novel PET and SPECT radiopharmaceuticals will drive growth opportunities in broader clinical segments, finds Frost & Sullivan's Transformational Health team

The adoption of value-based reimbursement in the United States (U.S.) healthcare will make molecular imaging instrumental for quicker diagnosis, more accurate disease staging, and selection of targeted treatments. New radiopharmaceuticals for positron emission tomography (PET) and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) are also driving adoption of molecular imaging equipment in wider clinical care. The market, however, faces several challenges, including growing competition from lower-cost modalities, such as computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and uncertainty of future supply of Tc-99m, a key SPECT radiopharmaceutical used for cardiac scans.

Analysis of the United States Molecular Imaging Equipment and Radiopharmaceuticals Market, Forecast to 2023 is part of Frost & Sullivan's Advanced Medical Technologies Growth Partnership Service program. The analysis finds that the PET/CT equipment market will experience huge growth over the next few years, mainly due to the launch of novel technologies and quantitation software. This expansion will also benefit from the launch of modern PET radiopharmaceuticals in oncology, neurology, cardiology and other clinical areas. This combination of current technologies and recent radiopharmaceutical products will provide opportunities for companies to develop faster, safer and more accurate PET/CT scans using analytics, and advanced software based on newer quantification algorithms.

The SPECT/CT equipment market will grow to reach $75.6 million by 2023. The PET and SPECT radiopharmaceuticals markets will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.2 percent and 4.9 percent, respectively, from 2016 to 2023 to reach revenues of $675.8 million and $910.8 million.

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"Molecular imaging is experiencing a renaissance with new products, improved quantitation software, and higher imaging quality, while the radiopharmaceuticals market is undergoing significant innovation that will broaden the scope of imaging beyond traditional cardiac and oncology applications. For instance, PET/CT and SPECT/CT platforms can eventually be used for early detection of diseases such as dementia, Alzheimer's and post-traumatic stress disorder," said Transformational Health Senior Research Analyst Tanvir Jaikishen.

The PET/CT equipment market will continue to grow vastly the next few years with new technology, better quantitation algorithms and new PET radiopharmaceuticals in oncology, neurology and cardiology opening up new clinical areas. SPECT/CT on the other hand, will continue to experience declining revenues for the next few years, mostly due to uncertainty of future Tc-99m supply and challenges with SPECT quantitation accuracy. With cyclotron-based approaches towards manufacturing Tc-99m becoming commercially viable in the next two years, coupled with existing and future advances made to SPECT, quantitation accuracy, The SPECT/CT market is expected to grow by 2019.

The molecular imaging and radiopharmaceuticals markets, though concentrated, are highly competitive. Key participants, such as GE Healthcare, Siemens Healthineers, Philips Healthcare, Siemens PETNET, Toshiba America Medical Systems, NeuSoft, Bracco, and Lantheus Medical, must work with end users to reduce dosage and scan times, increase patient volumes, and improve workflow efficiencies. Partnership arrangements will help players capture a larger market share and become the go-to providers for all molecular imaging requirements.

Upcoming market disruptions and emerging growth opportunities include:

Launch of cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) whole body SPECT that allows the use of multiple radiopharmaceuticals simultaneously. This eliminates the need for whole body scans and takes SPECT beyond cardiology, giving applicability in multiple clinical areas.

Enhanced SPECT quantitation accuracy that has encouraged clinicians to recapture lost share of myocardial perfusion imaging from PET/CT.

Novel radiopharmaceuticals, which will allow for more accurate staging and diagnosis of diseases, for example, Axumin by Blue Earth Diagnostics used for detection of recurrent prostate cancer.

New PET and SPECT radiopharmaceuticals for neurology, orthopedics, and other clinical areas will increase the scope of molecular imaging. These radiopharmaceuticals will result in the reduced use of Tc-99m and fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) for SPECT/CT and PET/CT scans respectively.

"Going forward, PET/CT vendors will focus on modularity of design and smaller footprint modalities to target smaller providers, such as imaging/radiology centers and small hospitals, and address end-user affordability issues. On the other side, SPECT/CT vendors will seek primarily to recapture the myocardial perfusion imaging market space from PET by offering a lower cost modality to hospitals and imaging centers as well as an inexpensive& scan to payors, without compromise on quality and accuracy," added Jaikishen.

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Analysis of the United States Molecular Imaging Equipment and
Radiopharmaceuticals Market, Forecast to 2023
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