French medical-imaging market worth 800 million euros

Medical imaging is an extremely open and dynamic sector in France, thanks to government initiatives which have attracted inward investment: the French in vivo medical-imaging market is estimated to be worth about 800 million euros ($1.15 billion), in a global market that was valued at 20 billion euros in 2010, reports Invest in France Agency (IFA), France's national agency responsible for promoting and facilitating international investment in France.

Ground-breaking partnerships are being set up between France's clusters of excellence and international businesses: more than 650 non-French companies belong to one of France's 71 innovation clusters, in areas that include medical imaging and related fields, IFA notes.

The market for medical imaging comprises three different segments: traditional imaging techniques (radiography and ultrasound), which account for 59% of the market; endoscopy, which accounts for 19%; and, finally, the large instrument segment (CT, MRI and PET scanners), which makes up the remaining 22%.