Nuclear Medicine Market Overview

Nuclear medicine is a specific branch within radiology. It employs minimal quantities of radioactive material (radionuclide or radio-tracer) for medical research, diagnosis, and treatment of different conditions, such as cancer. The non-invasive methods of nuclear medicine are mostly painless. When injected, the radiotracer in the body builds up in areas of the body. Radiotracers concentrate on organs, tissues, or parts of the body being investigated, such as a malignant tumor or infected area. They sometimes get concentrated in some proteins in the body. Nuclear Medicine differs from other imaging techniques such as X-ray and CT by giving different information about the function of the systems of the body.

 

Nuclear Medicine Market experiencing significant growth of XX% every year and is expected to continue its growth during the forecast period. GE Healthcare, Siemens Healthineers, Philips Healthcare, Cardinal Health, and Bayer AG are well-established players in the Nuclear Medicine Market. GE Healthcare is a global leader in the Nuclear Medicine Market which offers a comprehensive range of nuclear medicine products and services. GE Healthcare’s StarGuide is the most advanced SPECT/CT featuring advanced Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) technology designed to usher in a new era of discovery for nuclear which visualizes multiple tracers simultaneously and NM/CT 870 CZT is the third generation SPECT/CT system powered by CZT technology.

 

It combines its improved small lesion detectability, enhanced image quality, and greater patient comfort with advanced quantitative applications provided through Xeleris. North America region held the dominant segment in the Nuclear Medicine Market in 2023. The Nuclear Medicine Market is mainly driven by the Increasing number of cancer patients and cardiovascular diseases and the Advancement in Nuclear Medicines, which will lead to the rapid growth of the Nuclear Medicine Market in the forecasting year 2024-2030. Higher Prices of Nuclear Medicine are the main challenges in the Nuclear Medicine Market. Based on Application, the Oncology segment dominated the Nuclear Medicine Market in 2023 with a share of XX%.

 

Diagnoses of cancer have also been increasing in people under 50 years of age. In 2022, there was an approximation of 20 million new cancer cases and 9.7 million deaths. It was estimated that 53.5 million people were alive within 5 years of a cancer diagnosis. About 1 in 5 people develop cancer in their lifetime, approximately 1 in 9 men and 1 in 12 women die from the disease. Nuclear medicine therapy entails the administration of radiopharmaceuticals targeted at specified tumours, such as thyroid, lymphomas, and bone metastases. The ionizing radiation emitted by radionuclides linked to the carrier kills cancer cells by damaging their DNA, causing the tumours to shrink.

 

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Nuclear Medicine Market Dynamics

Increasing number of cancer patients and cardiovascular diseases drives the Nuclear Medicine Market

Cardiovascular nuclear medicine is the subspecialty of nuclear medicine and cardiology that applies noninvasive methods to the assessment of blood flow, evaluation of heart function, determination of the extent and location of a heart attack, evaluation of inflammation within the heart muscle and vessels, and investigation of possible infection in the heart. Scans are performed by introducing small amounts of safe chemical tracing agents into the body, which produce the images. The radiotracer will flow through the area under study and emit energy as gamma rays. These are detected through the use of a special camera and computer to be formed into images of the interior of body.

 

The radiotracers in the heart release gamma rays which are captured by a SPECT or PET scanner. Nuclear cardiology is conducted while the patient is at rest, exercising physically, or under stress induced by medication. Currently, cardiovascular diseases are the leading global cause of death. Nuclear imaging technology plays a role in early detection that assumes increasing centrality. The technology is used to improve "outcomes" for patients—that is, early and precise diagnosis of diseases informs effective treatment and leads to faster and more complete return to health. Nuclear medicine therapy refers to another form of cancer treatment that uses radioactive drugs, which help bind to the cancerous cells with the view of destroying them.

 

This treatment applies to patients affected by neuroendocrine tumors, cancer of the prostate, meningiomas, thyroid cancer, and lymphoma. Nuclear medicine accomplishes this through the administration of radioactive drugs to target cancerous cells while avoiding normal cells. The drug consists of a head, a body, and a tail. Once inside the bloodstream, the head hunts down cancer cells like a bumblebee in search of flowers. Then the tail delivers the sting: a radioactive atom that bombards the cancer cell with radiation, causing it to stop growing or die. The drug hits the cancer cells with radiation for many days before slowly wearing off. After that, the drug breaks down and is flushed from the body.

 

• According to the World Health Organization, 30% of all global deaths can be attributed to cardiovascular disease. Over 80% of cardiovascular disease deaths occur in low and middle-income countries, with Africa and Asia having the highest rates of ischemic heart disease, which is the building up of plaque on the inner walls of arteries leading to high blood pressure and heart attacks.
• According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the number of new cancer cases worldwide is expected to increase from nearly 20 million in 2022 to 29.9 million in 2040. This is a 54.9% increase from 2020, and the number of cancer-related deaths is also expected to increase from 9.7 million in 2022 to 15.3 million in 2040. 

 

Advancement in Nuclear Medicines drives the Nuclear Medicine Market

PET or positron emission tomography is a form of nuclear medicine imaging. It is a three-dimensional imaging technique in which doctors study functioning of organs and tissue—blood flow, consumption of oxygen, and sugar metabolism. It is among the helpful instruments for detecting varied diseases like cancer, heart diseases, and disorders within the brain. The health caregiver can use such information in the diagnostic, monitoring, or therapeutic process of the patient's condition. A PET scan is a device that can be used to showcase metabolic activity or biochemical activity of tissues and organs. The working of the PET scan involves a radioactive substance, which is called a tracer, in order to show normal and abnormal metabolic activity.

 

A PET scan can frequently identify the unusual way the tracer is processed in diseases before the disease appears on other imaging tests like CT and MRI. PET scans have the ability to show regions in the heart where blood flow is reduced. This data can assist in making decisions for the patient and their healthcare provider, PET scans are useful in diagnosing specific brain conditions including tumors, Alzheimer's disease, and seizures. While most of the routine medical tests, such as CT and MRI scans, allow doctors to view only the physical structure of the body, the PET scans present the image of functions all over the body, thus revealing abnormalities that may otherwise go unobserved. This enables physicians to provide more timely and precise treatment for these diseases.

 

PET scans can detect chemical alterations in an organ or tissue, recognizing the beginning of a disease prior to visible anatomical changes on CT or MRI scans. Tests have shown that it might be more sensitive to brain injury than either MRI or CT scanning because it can detect reduced blood flow to injured sites. SPECT scanning is also useful for the presurgical evaluation of medically uncontrolled seizures.

 

The test can be performed between seizures (interictal) or during a seizure (ictal) to determine blood flow to areas where the seizures originate. This type of scanning is also useful in diagnosing stress fractures in the spine (spondylolysis), blood-deprived (ischemic) areas of the brain following a stroke, and tumors.  SPECT scans can produce 2D and 3D images, and they can attach radiotracers to different molecules to image specific physiological processes. This advancement in nuclear medicine drives the growth of the Nuclear Medicine Market

 

• In January 2024, Lantheus Holdings, Inc. announced strategic agreements with Perspective Therapeutics, Inc. Under these agreements, Lantheus obtains an option to exclusively license Perspective’s Pb212-VMT-?-NET, a clinical-stage alpha therapy developed for the treatment of neuroendocrine tumors.
• In June 2021, Bayer AG declared the acquisition of PSMA Therapeutics Inc. & Noria Therapeutics Inc. and both radiotherapy companies are enhancing targeted imaging and therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals. The procurement is supposed to extend Bayer’s current oncology arrangement of nuclear medication.

 

Nuclear Medicine Market Challenges

Higher Prices of Nuclear Medicine

Nuclear imaging equipment is a premium product and is, therefore, costly. This is because this advanced equipment requires high installation investments, which also increases the procedural cost for patients. The developing countries are unable to adopt novel nuclear imaging systems as most healthcare facilities cannot afford such expensive systems. The Third-party payers aid healthcare facilities to purchase expensive systems by providing reimbursements for the costs incurred in the diagnostic, screening, and therapeutic procedures. The continuous cuts in reimbursements for diagnostic imaging scans are also hampering growth. Siemens did well in 2021 with its high-end digital PET scanner model Biograph Vision, the average unit price being ?20 crore.

 

The remaining machines were at an average unit price of ?8 crore each, all bought by private institutions. The cost of establishing a PET program was quite high, the cost of developing a comprehensive PET center ranged from $5 million to $7 million as an investment for the equipment and facilities, with projected operating expenses ranging from $2 million to $2.5 million per year. According to reports, the direct costs of treatment and the loss of productivity due to cardiovascular disease are estimated at $109 billion in the United States, and by 2030 the cost of coronary artery disease is estimated to rise to $218 billion. Economists estimate that not investing in the prevention and treatment of coronary artery disease could cost $37,000 billion over the next 25 years. The cost of SPECT was $352 whereas the cost of stress echocardiography was $120.

 

• According to the EU’s Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard, health industries invested about €235.3 billion in R&D in 2021, accounting for 21.5% of total business R&D expenditure worldwide.
• According to the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Health in the Central African Republic, less than half of the country's healthcare facilities are fully operational, and the ratio of doctors to people is alarmingly low, with only 0.6 doctors for every 10,000 people which is one of the lowest in the world and one of the world’s highest maternal mortality rates (835 deaths per 100,000)

 

Nuclear Medicine Market Segment Analysis

Based on Application, the Oncology segment dominated the Nuclear Medicine Market in 2023 with a share of XX%. Diagnoses of cancer have also been increasing in people under 50 years of age. In 2022, there was an approximation of 20 million new cancer cases and 9.7 million deaths. It was estimated that 53.5 million people were alive within 5 years of a cancer diagnosis. About 1 in 5 people develop cancer in their lifetime, approximately 1 in 9 men and 1 in 12 women die from the disease. Nuclear medicine therapy entails the administration of radiopharmaceuticals targeted at specified tumours, such as thyroid, lymphomas, and bone metastases, which convey radiation to lesions that are tumorous as part of a therapy strategy that looks to cure, mitigate, or control the disease.

 

It can be used either on selective targets or throughout the entire body. The treatment of cancer involves different strategies, such as chemotherapy, surgery, radiation therapy and, most recently, targeted therapies, such as the use of radionuclide-based therapies employed in nuclear medicine. External radiotherapy with ionizing radiation is the most frequently employed radiation treatment of cancer patients. Another option for the treatment of most cancers is targeted radionuclide therapy, based on administering radioactive substances to patients. Much like chemotherapy, this therapy represents a systemic treatment in the sense that cells all over the body are reached by travelling via the bloodstream. The radiopharmaceuticals suited for therapeutic purposes are those that strongly bind with the tumour – also known as vehicles with a high tumour affinity.

 

They can transport targeted doses of radiation directly to the tumours and its metastases, thereby sparing normal healthy tissue. The choice of the molecule that carries the radiation to the tumour is determined by its affinity – or binding power – to the tumour’s target structures, such as antigens or receptors. The ionizing radiation emitted by radionuclides linked to the carrier kill cancer cells by damaging their DNA, causing the tumours to shrink. It's injected intravenously, then circulates in the body, sticks to the tumor cells, delivers radiation directly and causes them to die. Some of the drug never attaches to cancer cells and keeps floating in the blood until the body gets rid of it, mostly in the urine. Over time, the radioactive drug stops giving off radioactivity and stops killing cancer cells.

 

• According to WHO, over 35 million new cancer cases are predicted in 2050, a 77% increase from the estimated 20 million cases in 2022

• In September 2022, Radiopharm Theranostics and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center formed a joint venture to develop novel radiopharmaceutical therapeutic products for the treatment of cancer.

 

Nuclear Medicine Market Regional Insights

North America dominated the Nuclear Medicine Market and accounted for an XX% share in 2023. Key factors driving the industry include a strong research and development framework, early technology adoption, and key regional players such as GE Healthcare, Jubilant Life Sciences Ltd, Nordion (Canada), Inc., and Bracco Imaging S.P.A. Government-funded research organizations such as the American Heart Association provide valuable support. In 2023, Alzheimer's ranks as the fifth most common cause of death for Americans aged 65 and above, with around 6.9 million Americans in this age group currently diagnosed with Alzheimer's, and 119,399 deaths reported in 2021. The primary reason for mortality in the Americas is cardiovascular diseases. In Latin America and the Caribbean, they represent 31% of all fatalities.

 

Mortality rates for ischemic heart disease are elevated in all sub-regions, with the highest rates seen in North America and the Latin Caribbean. The rate of stroke victims is expected to almost double, rising from 3.9 percent to 6.4 percent. the percentage of adults with high blood pressure will increase to 61% in 2050 from an estimated 51.2% in 2020. The American Heart Association has estimated that come 2050, most costs to be incurred regarding cardiovascular disease will rise to $1.8 trillion, totalling over 61 percent of the U.S. population, being more than 184 million people. According to information from the American Heart Association, 25 million more people will most likely develop any form of CVD over the next 30 years, increasing problems and expenses related to CVD. The increase in ailments such as Heart Diseases, Endocrine Disorders, Bone Disorders, and kidney diseases in North America is boosting the Nuclear Medicine Market.

 

• Each year in the United States, 1.7 million people are diagnosed with cancer, and more than 600,000 die from it, making it the second leading cause of death. The cost of cancer care continues to rise and is expected to reach more than USD 240 billion by 2030.
• In 2023, Madagascar has a population of nearly 30 million and a GDP of $15 billion. Almost two-thirds of the country's population lives below the poverty line, lacking enough capital to spend on adequate healthcare. The healthcare system in Madagascar is highly underfunded due to a lack of infrastructure and insufficient qualified personnel.

Nuclear Medicine Market Scope

 

Nuclear Medicine Market by Region

North America (United States, Canada, and Mexico)

Europe (UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Austria and Rest of Europe)

Asia Pacific (China, South Korea, Japan, India, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Rest of APAC)

Middle East and Africa (South Africa, GCC, Egypt, Nigeria and Rest)

South America (Brazil, Argentina, Rest of South America)

 

Nuclear Medicine Market Key Players.

• GE Healthcare (US)
• Siemens Healthineers (Germany)
• Philips Healthcare (Netherlands)
• Cardinal Health (US)
• Bayer AG
• North Star Medical Radioisotopes
• Bracco Imaging (Italy)
• Eckert & Ziegler (Germany)
• Lantheus Medical Imaging (US)
• Jubilant Life Sciences (India)
• IBA Molecular (Belgium)
• Norgine B.V. (Netherlands)
• FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation (Japan)