According to the Oxford English dictionary, a Titan is ‘a person or thing of very great strength, intellect or importance’.

When it comes to the Radiation Oncology market there are two clear companies that can be described as Titans of this industry.

The Californian based Varian Medical Systems are the world leaders in radiation oncology, claiming to have 55% of the $5billion market. With approximately 6500 staff across the world they truly are a global force in the treatment of cancer.

They don’t have the market all to themselves though, close on their heels for the last 46 years has been Elekta. A Swedish business started in the early 1970s by Lars Leksell the inventor of radiosurgery, Elekta are a leading light in the radiation oncology sector. Their image guided radiotherapy product Unity is their latest in a long list of technological breakthroughs. Elekta claim to have a 39% share of the Linear Accelerator market, making them a fine competitor to their American counterparts.

So with these Titans battling it out to be at the cutting edge of cancer treatment, where does that leave the other 5-10% slice of the market?

The barriers to entry in the radiation oncology sector have always been high. Developing a linear accelerator is no simple task and it’s certainly not cheap. This hasn’t stopped there being some aggressive growth from competitors in recent years.

• IBA have been making strides in the growing Proton therapy market and although 2017 wasn’t their strongest year, 60,000 patients were still treated using IBA systems last year.
• Accuray are another California based cancer treatment business, and although they are considerably smaller than their west coast neighbors, they have increased revenue by 6% in 2018, showing they are certainly moving in the right direction.
• Viewray, Mevion and Isoray are also significant players in this sector, working towards a bigger slice of the pie.

The big names aren’t slowing down

As things stand, the two titans of radiation oncology are not showing any signs of slowing down both in terms of innovation and sales. With multiple smaller companies biting at their heels, they really can’t afford to.

One thing all these companies have in common is their understanding that the world has a real shortage of radiation oncology equipment and access to treatment is not as easy as it should be. The innovation coming from these companies both large and small is only going to improve that, with the real winner of this battle always being the patients receiving the treatment.

How do you see the radiation oncology market evolving in the coming years?

If you’d like to have a chat about recruitment in the radiation oncology market, get in touch with me on billy.williams@fmctalent.com