From models of the human body to product prototypes to human tissue for cancer research, the healthcare industry has latched onto 3-D printing and is expected to be one of the top industries in driving growth of the 3-D printing market over the next decade.
Boston-based Lux Research estimates that today’s $777 million 3-D printing market will become an $8.4 billion market by 2025. Industrial use will drive most of that growth, particularly the medical, automotive and aerospace industries. By 2025, those three industries will account for 84 percent of the market, Lux says in its new report, “Building the Future: Assessing 3D Printing’s Opportunities and Challenges.”
Medical applications today account for only a percent-and-a-half of the 3-D printing market, but they’re still very much in their infancy.
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“Right now, one problem is that printable materials are very expensive,” said Anthony Vicari, a research associate at Lux and the lead author of the report. But as new suppliers enter the market, the price of 3-D scanners, printers and materials will drop, and result in more widespread adoption in not only prototyping but also in the manufacturing of small parts healthcare and across other industries.
“Within medical applications, we see the greatest opportunity in orthopedic implants,” Vicari said, noting the recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance for Oxford Performance Materials’s OsteoFab cranial implant created through 3-D printing. The 3-D printing approach makes these implants customizable for the patient. “It’s something that manufacturers are actively exploring,” Vicari said.
Healthcare has notoriously lagged behind other industries in areas like IT and customer experience, but being one of the top markets for growth in 3-D printing doesn’t necessarily mean it’s ahead of the curve this time. “Auto and aerospace have been doing 3-D printing for 20 years,” Vicari said. “It’s only now in any industry that it’s starting to move into production applications.”
And while the market for 3-D printing in medicine is poised to be worth $1.9 billion by 2025, there are still plenty of potential roadblocks. “Right now, I think the main thing in medical is that 3-D printing has shown that it can produce medical devices and parts that will function, but they have not yet shown that they are superior to traditional devices,” Vicari said. “Nor have they shown that they’re cheaper, so it’s not likely that government or insurers will pay for them.”