Citing the “large cohort of undiagnosed people with OSA across the globe,” Frost & Sullivan analysts recently identified the sleep world as a “highly attractive market for investments.”
The new analysis from Frost & Sullivan’s Technology Breakthroughs in Sleep Apnea finds that the time is ripe for stakeholders to integrate their efforts and develop a standard platform to diagnose and treat sleep apnea patients.
“Current treatments for sleep apnea include surgery to correct static obstructions, the use of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) devices to supply air, and other devices that help keep the airway open,” said Frost & Sullivan Technical Insights team leader Saju John Mathew. “There are also over 30 different drugs in the market that address OSA issues by increasing the tone of the upper airways and ventilator drive. Other drugs work to reacidify the blood and force the body to breathe more often, balancing the effect of hyperventilation.”
According to Frost & Sullivan, a key challenge facing the market is the lack of qualified personnel, such as pulmonologists and otolaryngologists, to diagnose sleep apnea in a timely manner. In addition, poor compliance with CPAP devices – “even though it is safer and more effective than any other surgical therapy – has resulted in sleep apnea and its associated illnesses recurring among patients.”
Analysts add that the development of more “ergonomic CPAP devices will help increase patient ability to adhere to sleep therapy. The market is also seeing a rise in newer technologies that replace elaborate practices, target patient comfort to improve compliance, and help drive acceptance of sleep monitoring devices. This includes mandibular repositioning devices, which are cheaper than CPAP devices and more effective than tongue retaining devices; neuromodulators that are being developed with increasingly smaller footprints resulting in small incisions.”