Global Trend in Bariatric Surgery

The global obesity problem has been targeted by multiple alternative therapies including surgery (with and without devices), a variety of over the counter and ethical drugs (and combinations of them), behavioral therapies and other approaches.

The biggest opportunity appears to be for obesity drugs, ostensibly since they avoid invasive surgery (and need for repeat). However, despite recent trends toward rapprochement between the FDA and the obesity drug industry (see Contrave, Lorcaserin, and Qnexa), there is little belief that any particular drug manufacture is imminently poised for a windfall in obesity drug sales.

Consequently, the onus of intervention for serious obesity remains on bariatric surgeries. These include sleeve gastrectomy, gastric banding, Roux en-Y bypass and the less frequently used biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch. With demand historically rising at aggressive rates and prevalence, based on clinical trends, projected to continue, bariatric surgeries (as well as associated obesity device sales) will remain one of the true high growth surgical procedures.

Below is illustrated the 2003 to 2013 trend in bariatric surgery, drawn from MedMarket Diligence’s 2011 report #S835, “Products, Technologies and Markets Worldwide for the Clinical Management of Obesity, 2011-2019.”

Source: MedMarket Diligence, LLC; Report #S835.

Author

PatrickDriscoll

I serve the interests of medical technology company decision-makers, venture-capitalists, and others with interests in medtech producing worldwide analyses of medical technology markets for my audience of mostly medical technology companies (but also rapidly growing audience of biotech, VC, and other healthcare decision-makers). I have a small staff and go to my industry insiders (or find new ones as needed) to produce detailed, reality-grounded analyses of current and potential markets and opportunities. I am principally interested in those core clinical applications served by medical devices, which are expanding to include biomaterials, drug-device hybrids and other non-device technologies either competing head-on with devices or being integrated with devices in product development. The effort and pain of making every analysis global in scope is rewarded by my audience's loyalty, since in the vast majority of cases they too have global scope in their businesses.Specialties: Business analysis through syndicated reports, and select custom engagements, on medical technology applications and markets in general/abdominal/thoracic surgery, interventional cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery, patient monitoring/management, wound management, cell therapy, tissue engineering, gene therapy, nanotechnology, and others.

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