Market Overview

Medical bionics (artificial organs) refer to implantable medical electronics and equipment used in hospitals, clinics, medical checkup centers.
In the artificial organ market, with the exception of extracorporeal circulation devices, the development of minimally invasive surgical techniques and the release of new devices are gaining momentum. An increasing number of cases and products of transcutaneous surgical devices are impacting open surgical devices as their adoption in clinical settings continues despite application criteria.
On the other hand, an increase in the number of patients opting for medications to treat osteoporosis or rheumatoid arthritis has been a negative factor, as it varies the number of surgical cases, albeit partially.

The number of cases involving medical bionics, which had been suppressed during the COVID-19 pandemic, has recovered since FY2022 to pre-COVID levels or even higher, depending on the type of medical bionics. On the other hand, these problems remain: Soaring production costs, including overseas products, stemming from rising material and transportation costs, and product supply shortages caused by delayed production and imports. Under these circumstances, the medical bionics market in Japan (a total of 68 products from 34 categories) is estimated to be 676,521 million yen, up 1.3% year on year.

Noteworthy Topics

Trend of 6 Neurosurgical Products

Within the medical bionics (artificial organs) market, the market for six neurosurgical products reached 10,578 million yen in FY2023, up 1.8% year on year.
Specifically, brain aneurysm clips continued to decline due to an increase in cerebral intravascular treatment, while shunt valves increased slightly. The number of open brain surgeries is declining, due to an increase in the use of cerebral intravascular devices and an increase in radiation therapy, making the market for artificial bones used in surgery more challenging.

Future Outlook

Now that the overall impact of the pandemic has subsided, the trends in medical bionics (artificial organs) by specialty area are as follows:

In cardiothoracic surgery and cardiovascular systems, artificial heart valves for TAVI (Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation) or TAVR (Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement) continue to grow, in part due to expanded applications, while artificial vessels are trending downward with increased adoption of drug coated balloons (DCB) in abdominal and peripheral vascular applications.
In orthopedics, both artificial joints and spinal fixation systems continue to show steady growth, driving the market, supported partly by the aging population.
The market for artificial kidneys and related products is expected to be on a declining trend, because of a decrease in the annual number of hemodialysis patients, a decrease in the number of dialysis clinics, and a slowdown in the use of dialyzers, although hemodiafiltration and hemodialysis (especially hemodiafiltration) are expected to increase.

Research Outline