Asia-Pacific nuclear medicine/radiopharmaceuticals market to be worth $825 million by 2017

The Asia-Pacific radiopharmaceutical market was valued at $500.8 million in 2012 and is poised to reach $824.9 million by 2017 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.5%, according to a new report added to the offering of marketsandmarkets.

Similar to the global nuclear medicine market, the Asia-Pacific region is also minimizing its dependency on nuclear reactor by introducing hospital-based cyclotron facilities. This paves the way for novel isotopes such as Tl-201, F-18, and Rb-82 to capitalize on opportunities in the growing diagnostics market. Besides the gigantic Tc-99m market, florbetapir F 18 and F18-FDG are gaining popularity through their applications for Alzheimer’s disease and diagnosis of brain tumors. Nihon Medi Physics, Covidien, Fujifilm, and ANSTO contributed more than 75% to the Asia-Pacific nuclear medicine/radiopharmaceuticals market in 2012.

It is estimated that Tc-99m diagnostic procedures are expected to increase by more than 30% in the developing markets of the Asia-Pacific region, including India, Australia and South Korea, between 2010 and 2030. The scheduled shutdown of the NRU reactor in Canada in 2016 and OSIRIS in France in 2018 will not have any major impact in the near future, since demand in this geographic region is compensated by local reactors such as ANSTO.