High-value pharma and bio-nanotech will be $1,500B market by 2015

The nanomaterials boom is over and future growth opportunities in the nanotechnology sector will lie in pharmaceutical and health care applications of nanotechnologies, according to a new report from Cientifica.

The report, entitled "Half Way to the Trillion-Dollar Market? A Critical Review of the Diffusion of Nanotechnologies," uses a new economic model based on primary research that quantifies the impact and diffusion of nanotechnologies over time, allowing more accurate quantification of market impacts than was previously possible.

Through a detailed analysis of both public and private spending, the report concludes that the number of producers of nanomaterials has decreased as consolidation has increased and multinational chemical companies now dominate the market. Today, most of the nanomaterials heralded just a few years back as new high-value materials are quickly taking on a bulk commodity stature, according to the study.