A perfect storm of factors is creating a significant, long-term opportunity in medical parts manufacturing.

Global market demand for injection-molded medical parts and disposables is massive and continues to grow. According to Allied Market Research, the syringes market alone will reach $32B globally by 2027, driven by a compound annual growth rate of 9.6 percent. As of February, only 2.7 percent of the global population has been vaccinated against COVID-19, which leaves at least another 15 billion individual vaccinations to be administered, assuming everyone receives two doses.

At the same time, the world is experiencing both short- and long-term supply shortages of key medical devices. For example, low dead-space syringes are in short supply worldwide, hampering the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine.

These challenges present a significant opportunity for companies to add highly profitable revenue streams with the manufacture of:

• Drug delivery devices, including syringes and pen needles
• Diagnostic kits and equipment, including COVID-19 testing kits
• Other medical devices and supplies

What’s Driving the Opportunity?

In addition to COVID-19, which has led to a surge in demand for syringes, test kits and protective devices, a few other factors are driving the opportunity in medical parts manufacturing.

One of these is the trend towards local medical manufacturing. Governments around the world are trying to address local production gaps to secure a reliable and cost-effective supply of medical devices and disposables. This is creating a short-term window of opportunity for manufacturers to set up new manufacturing facilities to satisfy local and regional demand.

Over the long term, rising demand is also being driven by macroeconomic factors including an aging population, an increase in self-administered medication and increased government healthcare spending, especially in developing nations.

What’s Involved

If you are already in the injection molding business, your existing equipment and knowledge mean you are well on your way to producing medical parts and disposables. It is a straightforward extension of your core capabilities. To make it even easier, many medical parts use the same resins as the non-medical parts that you already produce today.

The first step in making the move to medical plastic molding is to determine which parts you will manufacture to serve the local and regional demand. While medical offers a very broad range of highly profitable parts you could choose from, some parts are easier to get started with and offer more immediate potential for growth. These include:

• Syringes
• Pipettes
• Blood tubes
• Pen needles

Tips for Success

Based on our extensive knowledge and experience helping customers bring medical parts to market, here are some of the top tips to make a successful and profitable move into medical parts molding:

• Do your research and get a clear understanding of local market needs and regulatory requirements.
• Be strategic in your choice of part designs. Choosing standard part designs can save you a lot of time in research and testing.
• Focus on quality. Medical parts manufacturing has a much more rigorous set of standards than other applications.
• You will need help to make the right choices and navigate the process. Even with your knowledge of injection molding, there is a lot of new ground to cover, so you should work with a partner who understands medical injection molding, has a strong network and has a proven roadmap for bringing injection-molded medical parts to market.

Next Steps

If you are interested in expanding your revenue streams in the growing and highly profitable medical parts market, talk to us!

As a global leader in medical injection molding, Husky has been trusted by organizations worldwide for over 60 years. We offer complete, end-to-end solutions to help you succeed in medical manufacturing, regardless of your existing knowledge and experience with injection molding.

With Husky as your partner, it’s easier to enter the medical molding arena than you think. Profit from our experience.