Home Healthcare to drive medical polymers market growth

The year 2020 imparted an unprecedented challenge of the modern age, a humanitarian crisis in the form of the Corona Virus pandemic. The virus used humans as vectors for its speedy spread infecting every corner of the world in record-time. World Health Organisation (WHO) and medical experts responded to the outbreak promptly and released precautionary methods that people can undertake to safeguard themselves from contracting the virus. Global lockdowns ensued and masks, gloves, face shields, PPE kits became indemand household items to prevent the spread of the virus, especially essential for medical professional working with Covid patients.

This outbreak put a lot of pressure on the industry to manufacture and boost the availability of home healthcare products. For example, masks and gloves used by medical professionals had to be made available locally to everyone. Medical professionals, immunocompromised population and people with underlying health conditions had to opt for PPE kits to obtain extra layer of protection from the virus. Consequently, manufacturers had to double up on production and retailers had to have access to ample inventory to meet the demand, amid the limitations of the supply chain impaired by the pandemic.

The latest research report published by Fact, highlights the key factors driving growth in the medical polymers market. As per the report, the global medical polymers market size is valued at US$ 8.19 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach US$ 20.1 billion by 2031, attributed to the widening scope of use of polymers for various medical applications.

The report suggests the growing demand for home healthcare products is pushing the medical polymers industry, due to the paradigm shift in consumer behaviour towards purchasing various home healthcare products to minimize hospital charges and reduce the threat of Covid infection. This shift in behaviour may set the tone for demand and sales of medical polymers in the future and is leading research and development from manufactures to further expand the uses of polymers in health and medical applications. Since polymers offer a range of benefits that are beneficial to the medical sector from being light weight, durable, flexible, easily processed, to offering design freedom and ease of sterilisation, it is not surprising that they are becoming increasingly the preferred choice for replacing traditional materials such as metal and glass.

Covid 19 pandemic further accelerated the pace of transformation of the use of polyolefins in the medical and healthcare industry. As for any medical device, polymer products are also put through stringent performance tests that must meet quality standards to ensure optimum performance through the entire value chain of packaging, shipping, end-use and disposal. At OQ, we serve the healthcare market with polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) Luban grades for the durables, flexible and rigid packaging industries. These products play an essential role in alleviating the sudden surge in demand from the medical and healthcare market. The pandemic united industries together with one goal, that was ensuring the safety and wellbeing of each and every citizen and frontline worker by making essential products available and accessible.

Covid 19 pandemic further accelerated the pace of transformation of the use of polyolefins in the medical and healthcare industry, and it put pressure on global plastic industry to boost manufacturing of home healthcare products such as gloves, masks, and face shields and PPE to prevent the spread of virus.