KIDNEY TRANSPLANT MARKET ANALYSIS

Some key challenges in the kidney transplant market include the shortage of kidney donors. The number of patients needing a kidney transplant far outweighs the number of available organs. There are also ethical issues associated with expanding the donor pool. Another challenge is preventing organ rejection in transplant recipients. Despite improvements in immunosuppression drugs, acute and long-term rejection remain a risk. Financial barriers also exist for many patients who lack adequate health insurance coverage for expensive transplant procedures and lifetime immunosuppression therapy. For instance, In December 2020, according to a study in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, researchers found that 493 kidneys with similar quality and donor characteristics as those transplanted in France, where transplant practices are less restricted, could have been used for transplantation in the U.S. The study indicates that the survival rates for these kidneys were 93% at one year, 83% at five years, and 68% at 10 years. This suggests that many kidneys with suitable donors in the U.S. are unnecessarily discarded.

Market Opportunities: Treatment Advancement

The development of more advanced immunosuppression medications may further reduce rejection rates. Expanding living donor programs and incentivizing donations could help close the organ supply gap over time. Medical technology innovations in areas such as organ preservation, organ support devices, and lab-grown organs also hold promise to make more kidneys available and improve.