According to Millennium Research Group (MRG), the global authority on medical technology market intelligence, the European market for endovenous ablation will grow moderately through 2015. Despite the procedure’s advantages in minimal invasiveness when compared to its most common alternative, surgical stripping, growth will still be limited by minimal reimbursement and slow physician adoption.
Compared to surgical stripping, endovenous ablation is quicker, is significantly less traumatic to the patient and allows for a speedier recovery with fewer painful side effects. Many other new medical procedures with similar advantages over older techniques have seen rapid adoption, but adoption of endovenous ablation in Europe remains slow.
Endovenous ablation devices are expensive, and thus their adoption depends strongly on reimbursement by public and private insurers. In Europe in 2010, only the United Kingdom, Italian and French public health care systems offered reimbursement for these procedures, and their coverage was scant. In addition, physicians who are used to surgical stripping are unlikely to switch procedures.
Endovenous ablation includes both laser (ELA) and radio frequency (ERFA) technologies. Covidien subsidiary VNUS Medical Technologies was the first European market entrant and dominates the ERFA device segment, despite recent competition from Celon. ELA device companies remain competitive against the ERFA device competitors, especially with biolitec’s launch of its ELVeS radial device.
“Adoption of endovenous ablation, and choice of either ELA or ERFA within that technology are heavily dependent on physician choice,” said MRG Analyst April Lee. “Physicians tend to stick with the technology they were trained on. It would be beneficial for competitors in both the ELA and ERFA device markets to direct a portion of their marketing efforts toward medical schools and hospitals that offer fellowship training in varicose vein treatment. By educating physicians about their products, manufacturers lay the foundation for future sales with these physicians.”
Millennium Research Group’s European Markets for Varicose Vein Treatment Devices 2011report includes procedure, unit, average selling price and revenue information, along with market drivers and limiters and competitive landscape for endovenous laser ablation (ELA) devices, endovenous radio frequency ablation (ERFA) devices, surgical stripping devices and sclerosing agents in France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.
Source: Millennium Research Group
published: October 25, 2011 in: Products, Techniques, Vascular