Technological advancement has touched every sphere of our lives and healthcare is no such exception. In the last twenty years, the healthcare infrastructure has seen a massive turn-around. There are many niche techniques which are still in their infancy and are a subject of study. One such experimental technique is Gene Therapy. According to NIH (US national library of medicine), Gene therapy is a technique capable of treating any disease or disorder without administering and drug or surgery. The therapy looks promising in treatment of diseases such as cancer. However, the therapy is still a subject of clinical study for its effectiveness for other diseases. Gene therapy is gaining awareness due to its effectiveness to cure life threatening diseases which have no other cure. However, till this date there are only five approved products which are still in the nascent stage of commercialization. For instance, Gendicine is the first commercially available Gene Therapy product, developed in China by Shenzhen in 2004.
Gene therapy is an integral element of drug development. This is because of good outcomes. Unlike other drug therapies, gene therapy not only relieves the patient but permanently eliminates the disease or disorder. This is creating much awareness about gene therapy in the market and is one the key reasons driving it. Further, the growing healthcare expenditure on the drug development by the governments across the globe is also driving the market. For example, According to U.S. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, the annual healthcare expenditure of United States was $3.3 trillion in 2017. However, Canada’s expenditure for healthcare would reach to $253.2 billion in 2018 that accounts for 11.3% of Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP) as per Canadian Institute of Health Information. Moreover, healthcare expenditure in United Kingdom increased by 3.6% in 2016 as $217.47 billion from $209.9 billion in 2015 as per UK Health Accounts, 2016. Government-financed expenditure on healthcare accounted for 79.4% of total spending in the country. These factors are expected to drive the gene therapy market during the forecast period.
The gene therapy market is segmented on the basis of Type which includes Ex-Vivo and In-Vivo. Further on the basis of application the gene therapy market is segmented into cancer, monogenic, infectious disease, cardiovascular disease and others. Lastly the gene therapy market is further segmented on the basis of region.
With 40% of the market share by 2026, Europe is expected to dominate the gene therapy. This is majorly because of growing gene therapy centers and growing prevalence of chronic diseases such as CVD. According to British Heart Foundation, in 2017, around 7 million individuals are living with cardiovascular diseases in United Kingdom which include 3.5 million male population and 3.5 million female population. The cardiovascular diseases which are prevalent includes Coronary heart disease and heart attacks in the United Kingdom. According to British Heart Foundation around 2.3 million individual people are living with Coronary heart disease in United Kingdom that accounts for over 60 per cent are male population. Coronary heart disease is responsible for nearly about 70000 deaths in the United Kingdom every year with an average of 190 people each day. According to British Heart foundation, in United Kingdom there are nearly about 200000 individuals visit every year due to heart attacks which is one in every three minutes. Further, North America is expected to secure the second position in terms of market share after Europe. This is mainly on the back of growing CVD and cancer cases in the region.
Some of the key players in the market include Bluebird Bio, Spark Therapeutics, Sangamo, Dimension Therapeutics, Celladon, Vical Inc., Avalanche Bio, Advantagene. Gene therapy is a lucrative market so many companies are taking various strategic initiatives to enter this market. For instance, in 2019, Biogen has made has announced to buy Nightstar therapeutic (Britain). With this Biogen is expected to strengthen its product portfolio in gene therapy.
