Nanotechnology involves the miniaturization of devices beyond microengineering. At nanoscale, materials can have quite different properties, as different physical principles, like van der Wall''s forces and quantum effects, become more dominant. Intuitive understanding of forces like friction or surface tension is not useful at this level. Nanostructured materials may be very much stronger and lighter than conventional bulk materials. In this report, we consider the way in which nanoscale devices are being put to use in the biomedical industry, including molecular diagnostics, drugs, drug delivery, and drug discovery, nanotools, such as imaging devices and software, and in medical implants.
According to a soon-to-be-released report from Business Communications Company, Inc, B-162 Biomedical Applications of Nanoscale Devices, the worldwide market for nanoscale devices and molecular modeling is expected to rise at an AAGR (average annual growth rate) of 27.5% from $406 million in 2002 to $1.37 billion in 2007. A nanoscale device is one that has one or more critical components with architectural features that are 100 nm or less.
Biomedical uses of some nanoscale devices must go through a Food and Drug Administration approval process in the U.S., and the European Union and other countries have similar regulations. These involve animal testing, clinical trials, and an exhaustive analysis of the data, involving peer review, which takes time and a lot of money. It is estimated, for instance, that the average pharmaceutical takes $600-$800 million and about 12 years to develop. Hence, even though there are projections that nanotechnology will contribute over $1 trillion to the world economy, biomedical nanoscale devices will take awhile before they are successfully commercialized, since they are only now becoming available.
Nanoscale devices will eventually be employed as drugs or for drug delivery; in assays used for medical diagnosis, drug discovery, or basic biological research; as contrast agents for MRI imaging; and in imaging instruments, like X-ray devices. We also include in this report nanotools that employ nanoscale cantilevers, like dip pen nanolithography or atomic force microscopes. Attempts to create artificial cells and artificial organs, like the retinal implant, are also discussed. We see a 34.5% average annual growth rate in revenues derived from biomedical nanoscale devices through 2007, becoming a $1 billion industry by that date.
We have also included revenues from Molecular Modeling software. Although not a nanoscale device per se, it is obvious that design and manufacture of nanoscale devices would be next to impossible without computer help, so this software is a specialized type of nanotool. Much of the current revenue is derived from pharmaceutical companies involved in drug discovery. As nanodevices grow in number, it is imagined that more and more computer-aided design will be required. Nevertheless, we do not see this as a rapidly growing field, in part due to the competition from publicly available software from academic sources. Free is a hard price point to beat. We project an average annual growth rate of 5.8%, although the recent entrance into the field by large Japanese companies, Fujitsu and NEC, has the potential for an amplifying effect on the market.