Biopolymers Offer Ground-Breaking Solutions in Medical and Environmental Industries

A new name is added to a transplant waiting list every few minutes throughout the world. For many patients the wait is long. For some a life saving organ may never appear.

Inspired by these patients, researchers around the world have made remarkable advances in their search for new ways to alleviate the shortfall of available organs and dramatically reduce the time critically ill patients wait.

Promises of tissue engineering and replacement human organs have attracted considerable commercial interest to the area of medical polymers. The market potential can be judged on the figures, according to new research into Biopolymers by Technical Insights, a business unit of Frost & Sullivan (www.technical-insights.frost.com).

Billions of surgical procedures are carried out throughout the world each year using either organs or tissues, with patients undergoing these procedures accumulating billions of hospital days. The healthcare costs of those patients are more than $400 billion annually in the US alone.

"If medical polymers can address only a fraction of these costs, they will have a large market indeed," says the report's author, Aninditta Savitry. "But, with the cost and time involved in regulatory approval and the problems that have yet to be solved, it is not clear when, and what technology and which type of medical polymer will eventually appear in everyday life.

"The engineering of complete internal organs - liver and kidney, for example - is an ambitious goal. However, something must be done about the organ and tissue shortage," Savitry continues. "Researchers will continue to pursue it due to the urgent need for organ transplantations. It is the promise to alleviate the shortage that makes medical polymers an alluring arena despite all the risks and uncertainties."

Most scientists offer only cautious time lines when asked when their organ of choice will be ready. The estimate of 10 or 20 years are discouraging for those waiting on transplantation lists. "In the meantime, these scientists are doing their best," Savitry says.

There are also advancements being made in the field of industrial polymers. "Those wanting to get in on this early stage of biopolymer development should strongly consider forming partnerships with European or Japanese companies because this is where much of the early growth will take place," Savitry explains.

"In Europe, the emergency of strong environmental movements has forced governments and corporations to search for new methods and materials to tackle sold waste and other environmental problems. As a result, there is considerable interest in developing biodegradable products made from renewable resources.

"And the large agricultural surpluses resulting from the EC's Common Agricultural Policy presents a copious source of feedstocks for bioderived materials. There is also legislative pressure in the form of the German Green Dot prgramme, as well as the proposed EC 'Framework for Waste'. This framework would reward the production of 'environmentally safe' products, such as those packaged in or derived from biopolymers, with exemptions from certain duties.

"Given that legislative incentives are lacking in the US, US companies would be well advised to get involved not only at home, but also in the European and Japanese markets."

However, the study found there are several challenges ahead. "Biotechnology has given significant contribution in the development of industrial biopolymers. However, the production of large-volume, low-cost materials for industrial use is increasingly based on synthetic chemistry," Savitry says. "Although biotechnology may be cheaper and more efficient in some cases, in other cases chemicals synthesis of biological materials is sometimes a better option because it can be done using the existing manufacturing infrastructure.

In addition to the challenge of producing biologically derived materials, there is always the challenge of material performance. Research in physics and molecular biology are underway to produce supply reagents and tags that resemble a variety of biological characteristics and the means to attach them to both biological and synthetics systems in order to create desired performance.

These reagents provide a means to introduce characteristics of specific recognition, stimulus responsiveness, and elements of self-assembly into materials. The ultimate goal for such development is to gain control over the thermal, optical and biochemical responses of materials based on these biological motifs.

Frost & Sullivan is a global leader in strategic market consulting and training. Acquired by Frost & Sullivan, Technical Insights is an international technology research business that produces a variety of technical news alerts, newsletters, and reports. The ongoing research on biopolymers is covered in Genetic Technology News and Industrial Bioprocessing, a Technical Insights Subscription Service and in U.S. Tissue Engineering Market and European Orthopedic Tissue Engineering Market, Frost & Sullivan market analysis reports.

Report Title:Biopolymers: Sophisticated Materials with Growing Market Potential (Report D233)

For more information please contact:
Nikki Cole
Public Relations Executive
Nikki.Cole@frost.com

www.technical-insights.frost.com

( Source: Technical Insights )