Dialysis Market

Chronic kidney disease is the progressive loss of the function of the kidneys, which act as a filter to remove toxins and impurities from the blood. There can be many causes of chronic kidney disease but major causes include hypertension (high blood pressure) and diabetes, which can lead to irreversible damage of the blood vessels within the kidney that act as filtration units.

Some patients are able to live normally with chronic kidney disease but others will eventually progress to end-stage renal disease (ESRD), which requires life-sustaining treatment with dialysis or a kidney transplant. Because of the shortage of donor kidneys, most patients are treated indefinitely with dialysis (either peritoneal dialysis or haemodialysis).

Globally, there are about 1.55 million ESRD patients based on a 2006 report. The incidence is expected to increase as the adoption of Western-style diets by developing countries such as China and India will lead to increased rates of hypertension and diabetes and ultimately ESRD.

As of 2005, there were 471,989 ESRD patients in the United States, with 300,000 receiving active dialysis (1). The cost of treating these ESRD patients was US$32.6 billion, with treatment costs consistently doubling in every decade before. This translates into a person per year cost of dialysis in the Medicare population of US$57,841. In another report, in 2006, out of the 1.55 million patients globally, 89% of the patients were on HD and 11% were on PD.

Similarly, Singapore has seen an increase in patients with ESRD in the last decade. At the end of 2005, there were 4200 patients on dialysis. At current exchange rates (1US$ ≈ 1.4S$), the per person per year cost of haemodialysis ranged from US$ 18,857 -  30,000 to US$10,242 – 18,000 for peritoneal dialysis(2).

The kidney dialysis and equipment market is about US$55 billion worldwide and is expected to grow at 8% annually. Dialysis equipment alone accounts for a market of US$10 billion(3).

(1)   U.S. Renal Data System. USRDS 2007 Annual Data Report: Atlas of End-stage renal disease in the United States. Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases; 2006. Available at: http://www.usrds.org/atlas.htm

(2)   Ministry of Health, Singapore. Ministry of Health Information Paper 2006/013: Kidney Dialysis. Singapore: Ministry of Health, 2006

(3)   Kalorama Information: The Worldwide Market for Dialysis Equipment Supplies and Services 2nd Edition Feb 2007