Team:KU Leuven/Future/Economic potential analysis
Economic potential analysis
An economic rationale analysis for investing in the use of micro-organisms for the production of artificial bone implants.
Because our research contributes to the base of fundamental knowledge, it could be used as preliminary research for many applications. A brief look into the future potential, from an economic perspective, could possibly offer the rationale for a deeper research into the applications. As we will see, there are many opportunities and challenges that pop up and need to be addressed, even in this early stage. The main goal of this potential analysis is to construct a bridge between the pure scientific research and the commercial environment, resulting in a marketable product. In this analysis, we mainly focus on the use of Spot E.Shape principles for producing novel ways of producing artificial bone replacements. Although a similar analysis can be made for each of the other applications of the project. For more details on this, please go to the application section.
A deeper understanding of the market and industry dynamics in the bone-implant industry
Nowadays, elderly people are more active than ever before. They cycle, play tennis, go swimming, travel, etc. Besides, they do not want to give up on those activities because of their age. However the chances for accidents possibly resulting broken limbs are quite high. Approximately 1% of all falls of elderly people result in a hip fracture with an acute mortality of 3%-5%. (23)
The ageing population and rising living standards are two major driving forces for the demand of orthopaedic devices. Apart from that, the medical world is confronted with an increasing number of patient with obesity and osteoporosis. These factors result in an enhanced growth of the orthopaedic industry. Medical device companies respond by continuously looking for new ways of treating fractured bones in order to reduce the curing time and to obtain a more performant device.
A closer look into the industry dynamics reveals that the industry is highly regulated and very dynamic where most of the industry players are well-established small and medium-size enterprises (SME’s). A start-up company often needs a significant better product to gain some market share in the medical device industry.
References
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| [2] | Alison Hill, Mike Michael, Peter Wheale, Rene Von Schomberg, and Peter Glasner. Engineering Acceptance: Representations of 'The Public' in Debates on Biotechnology. The social management of genetic Engineering, pages 201-217, 1998. [ .pdf ] |
| [3] | Alan McHughen. Public perceptions of biotechnology, 2007. [ DOI ] |
| [4] | Eleonore Pauwels. Public Understanding of Synthetic Biology. BioScience, 63(2):79-89, 2013. [ DOI | http ] |
| [5] | Peter Raeymaekers. Design ontmoet biologie: synthetische biologie in Vlaanderen. Brussel IST. [ .pdf ] |
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Contact
Address: Celestijnenlaan 200G room 00.08 - 3001 Heverlee
Telephone: +32(0)16 32 73 19
Email: igem@chem.kuleuven.be
