Summary of Research Findings

This survey targets 33 items of biomedical instruments at hospitals, general clinics, etc., that are used for treatment/therapy.
In FY2023 and FY2024, the market faced production challenges driven by global economic conditions and rising material and logistics costs. Notably, manufacturers in Western countries struggled to recover from mass layoffs during the COVID-19 pandemic, as they were unable to rebuild their workforces, resulting in production delays.

In Japan, the escalation of expenses including utility costs and labor costs has resulted in corporations operating hospitals experiencing a decline in financial performance since FY2022, causing renewals of biomedical instruments to be postponed. However, owing to multiple delays during the pandemic, there exists a considerable number of instruments that necessitate replacement. While the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic is still observed, we projected that the market size of biomedical instruments (for treatment/therapy) in FY2023 has decreased to 173,843 million yen, representing a 2.1% reduction from the preceding fiscal year (32 items, based on the sales of manufacturers and distributors).
It should be noted that when the master-slave* surgical robot is taken into account, the market size is estimated to have achieved 194,203 million yen (33 items).

*Translator’s note: The terminology of “master-slave” in robotics may be considered ethically outdated; therefore, the terms “leader-follower” or “teleoperated robotic systems” may be more appropriate. Nonetheless, in this press release, the term “master-slave” is employed to maintain consistency with the original text in Japanese, highlighting the reality that this term remains prevalent in the medical robotics sector in Japan.

Noteworthy Topics

Master-Slave Surgical Robot Market Driven by Transitioning from Patent-based Monopoly to 5 Entity Rivalry

In 1999, Intuitive Surgical introduced the da Vinci surgical system, which features arms equipped with various instruments, such as a camera and forceps, thereby allowing an operator to perform laparoscopic surgery with a three-dimensional image of the operative field. Following the approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2000, Keio University Hospital adopted the system in the same year for advanced medical care. With the application of National Health Insurance coverage for the use of the da Vinci system for certain procedures in prostate cancer surgery in 2012, the utilization of the system is on the rise.

The dominance of the da Vinci system in the master-slave robotic surgery market continued until Intuitive Surgical's patents expired in 2019. Following this, numerous companies entered the global surgical robotics market, including in Japan. Regulatory approval for manufacturing and sales was granted for the Senhance Digital Laparoscopy System (Asensus Surgical) in 2019, followed by Japan’s first domestically manufactured system, hinotori™ (developed by Medicaroid Corporation, a joint venture between Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Sysmex), in 2020. Subsequent approvals included the Hugo™ Robotic-Assisted Surgery System (Covidien Japan) in 2022 and Japan’s second domestically manufactured system, the Saroa Surgical System (developed by Liverfield, a startup formed through joint efforts by the Tokyo Institute of Technology and Tokyo Medical and Dental University), in 2023. Additionally, in 2024, Intuitive Surgical received FDA approval for the da Vinci 5, which has since been launched in the U.S. market.

Research Outline