The European nuclear medicine and radiopharmaceuticals market will be worth 1.5 billion euros by 2020 compared with 1.0 billion euros in 2015, according to a new report by Markets & Markets.
The projected growth represents a compound annual growth rate of 8.2% during the five-year forecast period from 2015 to 2020, noted the authors, who also made the following points:
- This year the SPECT segments count for the largest share of the European radiopharamaceuticals diagnostic market, and cardiology applications account for the largest share of the European nuclear medicine SPECT market.
- PET is dominated by oncology applications, while the therapeutic market is dominated by thyroid applications.
- Beta emitters account for the largest share of the European Nuclear Medicine/radiopharmaceuticals therapeutic market.
- By country, Germany accounts for the largest portion of the European nuclear medicine and radiopharmaceuticals market, followed by France, Italy, and the U.K.
Several factors are driving the growth, including an increasing preference for SPECT and PET scans, advances in radiotracers, and the advent of alpha radio immunotherapy-based cancer treatments. Additional factors include the increasing incidence and mortality rate of cancer and cardiac ailments. Impediments to the market include the short half-life of radiopharmaceuticals, and competition from conventional diagnostic procedures, the company wrote.
