TEXTILES.ORG
by Janet Preus
The medical textiles market is expected to reach $23.3 billion by 2025, according to a release May 29, 2019 from reportlinker.com. Non-implantable goods, the report says, takes the largest share, which is not at all surprising for obvious reasons.
What’s a bit surprising is the growth in medical devices, including those that are made in part or in total from a textile. This particular market is a bit of a mine field, what with industry standards; government regulations; proprietary information that needs to be shared, at least in part; the usual challenges of launching a new enterprise, generally; and the menace of lawsuits. So, how does one explain the growth in a market that carries such risk?
The potential benefits—from a business standpoint, as well as its value to the larger medical and health care community—must be worth it, or at least there are enough entrepreneurs that believe this is the case. That’s the “nothing ventured, nothing gained” part. However, no matter how incredibly good your product is, whether it’s a textile or a device or product that uses medical textiles, carefully navigating the business decisions along the way could be every bit as crucial to a successful launch or new customer partnership.
Happily, there is help available to do that. Our first feature this month provides a focused look at Medical Device Master Files (MDMF), available through the FDA and useful for both textile manufacturers and device producers. Elaine Duncan, president of Palladin Medical Inc., has written a solid introduction to the topic and will be speaking about it, as well, at the Advanced Textiles Conference October 1, during IFAI’s Expo in Orlando, Fla. Both are a great opportunity to learn how to take advantage of this FDA program.
Later in the month, we’ll have an expert-written article from Matthew Hardwick, Ph.D., president and CEO of ResInnova Laboratories, who will discuss antimicrobials and medical textiles. This has been a hot topic for as long as I’ve been writing about the advanced textiles field, but it’s been some time since we’ve run an article specific to antimicrobials. It’s such a critical segment within the larger medical textiles world, that I know you’ll want to check back for that article.