The medical device industry is one of the largest segments of the healthcare industry in Saudi Arabia and has been showing noteworthy growth in current years, RNCOS said in its latest research report “Saudi Arabian Healthcare Market Forecast to 2012” on Friday. The medical device market is estimated to be worth around $790 Million in 2009. The main drivers of the growth in this industry will be the increasing investments by the public and the private sectors for setting up hospitals and clinics, which will create a strong demand for medical equipment and supplies. “We have done extensive research and prudent analysis of the Saudi Arabian medical device market in order to understand the factors that will continue to serve as growth driver for this market over the forecast period (2010-2012),” the report pointed out. “We have identified that various factors such as increasing rate of chronic diseases and rising old age population will create a substantial demand for diagnostic and monitoring devices, particularly diabetes and cardiovascular medical devices,” it noted. The future of this industry, therefore, remains pleasantly buoyant and it is expected that this industry will grow at a CAGR of around 12 percent during 2010-2012. The optimistic outlook for the growth of this industry bases with the fact that the health insurance in the country is increasing at a high rate which will boost the spending on medical devices, the report added. The research indicates that the Saudi healthcare industry has immense growth potential as it is in the initial stages of development. There is a high demand for hospital services and healthcare professionals in the industry. Further, the Kingdom is highly dependent on imported drugs, thereby giving room to the private players to set up their own manufacturing capacities locally, it added.
