Needlestick Safety: Design Improvements in Retractable Syringes
Concern over sharps cross-contamination and caregiver safety continues to drive technology and commercial innovation in the safety syringe sector. Following the lead of the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act in the United States, government regulations regarding syringe needle handling and disposal continue to proliferate worldwide, fostering increased demand in the use of safety syringes.
While safety syringe products encompass a broad range of design approaches including manual and auto disabling devices, retractable syringes represent the most elegant approach to addressing the caregiver sharps risk issue by de-emphasizing the need for a sharps disposal step. New retractable designs address caregiver preferences and mitigate the cost premium associated with retractable models.
While more that 50 companies compete in the safety syringe sector, about two dozen companies manufacture and market safety syringes that influence the competitive landscape. Alliance agreements, such as the recently announced marketing and distribution agreement between Inviro Medical and Formosa Medical, will continue to be a factor in shaping this sector. Technology licensing will continue to play an important role in the market for safety syringes in general and retractable syringes in particular.
These findings are contained in a new and comprehensive report: Retractable Safety Syringes: Players, Products and Prospects. The survey forecast gains in clinical market share for retractable safety syringes with caregiver-friendly design features and improved economics, and examines key business and economic factors driving this trend.
This article originally appeared in the February 2007 issue of HME Business.