The Market

The market for such humanized devices is large and Anethon is aiming at predetermined segments:

Arteriovenous hemodialysis access grafts (AV-shunts) represent 100,000 end stage renal patients annually, where due to complications each patient requires 2 to 3 grafts.

Although 2 to 3 million patients annually in the US alone are undergoing some procedure to alleviate problems with peripheral blood vessels, 130,000 amputations are still performed annually in these because no appropriate prosthetic device is available.

Coronary bypass grafting is routinely performed in 600,000 patients annually in the US. About 120,000 of these patients are subjected to a second operation because of failing bypasses. Consequently these patients' native graft potential becomes exhausted and about 85,000 patients die each year due to the lack of graft alternatives.

About 1 million patches are used each year to repair blood vessels as well as cardiac defects.

Finally, 400,000 heart valves are replaced annually.

All together this represents a global market currently worth over 5 billion dollars annually and growing. Additionally the burden on society is still exceeding this estimate when we include patient follow-up, etc.