Women in the United States suffering from benign uterine tumors usually face two choices: cope with severe pain and heavy menstruation or undergo major surgery — typically a hysterectomy to remove the entire uterus. Neither option is desirable, especially for women interested in bearing children.
However, a women’s health startup recently developed a breakthrough technology to treat uterine fibroids noninvasively. While the leadership team believed it had a game-changing technology and a strong understanding of its clinical potential, they wanted third-party validation of the therapy’s true market potential prior to launching it or negotiating with possible acquirers.
To evaluate the market size, identify barriers to adoption, and estimate the technology’s total value, Guidehouse conducted a strategic market assessment. This proprietary methodology utilizes comprehensive, fact-based data to examine the critical factors of adoption, including disease epidemiology, new value proposition vs. current standard of care, healthcare economics, patient care pathways, technology adoption dynamics, and the psychology of clinician behavior change.
The team needed to determine how many women struggled with symptoms severe enough to seek medical intervention; and of those, how many had the type of fibroids the startup’s new technology could treat. To find out, Guidehouse looked holistically at uterine fibroid patients and evaluated the criteria most relevant to the new procedure, including:
Lastly, Guidehouse assessed the barriers to market adoption, and found many were nonissues for the new technology. In fact, several factors were in its adoption favor:
The strategic market assessment uncovered an initial U.S. market potential of $428 million in annual revenue by 2028. That estimate represented 24% of the addressable global patient population.