Enormous private and public funding has been directed at nanotechnology and nanobiotechnology, generating tremendous pressure to move from research to real-world applications
Nanotechnology has received as much media attention than any other science sector since the space race of the 1960s.
This hype has attracted large sums of reactionary public and venture capital funding, and has brought in its wake tremendous pressure on market participants to deliver results.
The onus is now on participants in the nanobiotechnology applications sector to incorporate extensively researched technologies into commercially viable products.
New analysis from Frost and Sullivan, World Nanobiotechnology Market, reveals that sales of nanomaterials for use in nanobiotechnology applications generated revenues of US$750million in 2004.
This figure is projected to reach $2000million in 2011.
Nanobiotechnology deals with nanomaterials and their applications in life sciences.
Breakthrough applications in nano-scale therapeutics, drug delivery systems, and nano-scale scaffolds for tissue reconstruction are surfacing from laboratories into the development phase.
"Industry participants need to focus on collaborating well with interdisciplinary research partners to ensure sustainable growth of this emerging market," says Frost and Sullivan industry analyst Phil Webster.
Such enterprising market strategies are the need of the hour, since many alternative technologies are posing a significant challenge to the nanobiotechnology sector.
Conventional therapeutics, liposomes, and monoclonal antibodies are all established therapies and already have regulatory compliance and case law in place, unlike nanobiotechnology, which gives them a competitive edge.
As an emerging segment, nanobiotechnology holds great potential in the treatment of neurological disorders and cancer, which are areas of unmet medical need.
Most nanobiotechnology products that have satisfied regulatory requirements to date are cosmetics and medicinal creams, which use metallic nanoparticles to improve absorption.
Reformulated compounds that use nanoemulsion delivery systems have gained legislative approval and are commercially available.
In February 2005, the first nanoparticulate therapeutic reached the market, a major step in the development of the nanobiotechnology market.
With improving regulatory climate, market participants are drawing up plans for novel nanobiotechnology products.
While devising new applications for nanobiotechnology, competing companies will have to take into account the costs of nanomaterials.
Since nanomaterials have not generated much demand owing to the small quantities in which they are required, it is unfeasible to establish large-scale automated manufacturing systems.
Reactionary funding is proving essential to the establishment of the nanobiotechnology market.
Significant public and private investment in nanobiotechnology is sponsoring research projects in academia and facilitating the establishment of start-up and spin-off companies for commercialising nanobiotechnology applications.
"The funds have been used to set up sound infrastructure, particularly in the United States and Europe, for small companies to network and collaborate," says Webster.
"It is essential for industry participants to be aware of what funding sources are available and where, as this indicates hot spots of business opportunity".
World Nanobiotechnology Market, part of the company's biotechnology subscription research service, specifically focuses on nanobiotechnology rather than visualisation and diagnostics applications.
It analyses nanomaterial markets specific to the nanobiotechnology sector as well as application of these nanomaterials in pure therapeutics, drug delivery systems, and tissue reconstruction.
