Steam Autoclaves Market Trends

Growth Drivers

• Push from governments and regulatory bodies: Infection control and prevention protocols and strict hygiene standards necessitate consistent sterilization in associated industries. As a result, certified systems available in the market are gaining momentum in procurement as they help meet such compliance benchmarks while optimizing the whole process. On the other hand, failure to comply leads to penalties, product recalls, and legal liability. Thus, related entities are forced to adopt these devices to prevent such financial and reputational losses. This consumer base can be traced through the stable expansion of the global sterile medical packaging industry.
• Wide use in the pharma and biotech industries: Pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries heavily rely on sterile production environments for drug manufacturing, research, and quality assurance. This indicates an extended field of applications for the steam autoclaves market in these categories. Specifically, the wide usage in sterilizing lab glassware, culture media, and processing equipment is bolstering, as the global trade value of these industries grows. This can be exemplified by 572,401 single-use FDA-cleared medical devices that are commercially available and are subject to steam sterilization processes, as of April 3, 2022, according to the American Journal of Infection Control.
• Improvements in features and cost-effectiveness: Recently developed devices that are compact, energy-efficient, user-friendly, and ecologically sustainable are earning greater consumer engagement in the market. Advanced tools feature touchscreen interfaces, programmable cycles, and remote monitoring, while offering optimized water and steam usage to reduce operational costs and environmental impact. For instance, in July 2024, Midmark launched its next-generation steam sterilizers, M9 and M11, which offer an intuitive user interface, streamlined compliance recordkeeping, enhanced durability, reduced cost of ownership, unique preset cycles, and an option of autofill + auto-drain.

Overview of Payers’ Pricing Dynamics for the Target Demography in the Steam Autoclaves Market

Sterilization Cost of Reprocessed Kits in Surgical Centers (2022)

Analysis of Demographic Trends in Key Landscapes of the Steam Autoclaves Market

Recent Statistics of Long-term Care (LTC)-related HAIs in the U.S. (2015-2023)

Source: The Pennsylvania Patient Safety Reporting System (PA-PSRS)

Challenges

• High initial and operating costs of adoption: Steam autoclaves are expensive, and this has a significant detrimental effect on small health facilities, especially in developing regions. The World Health Organization (WHO) has indicated that 40% of medical equipment is never used in low-income countries because of overly high costs of procurement and subsequent operating costs. This is a disadvantage for government-funded hospitals facing budgetary constraints in adopting the technology.
• Restricted financial backing in emerging markets: In many emerging markets, government-sponsored healthcare funding is often flat, and since government budgets for healthcare typically prioritize basic infrastructure for health systems over high-cost sterilization equipment, the remaining budgets become so thin in this space further limiting the adoption in public hospitals serving low-income patients requiring sterilization equipment, since they may have to make out-of-pocket payments that may be prohibitive in cost. For example, in 2024, STERIS worked with state health agencies in the United States to subsidize the costs for autoclave installations.