Effects on Society and Economy

How does nanotechnology in medicine affect or influence the society and the economy?

Being a technology concerning a large scale research, development, production and implementation process, nanotechnology and its medical applications certainly reach out to every part of the people of the world.  Advances in nanomedical technology can help cure a variety of diseases and conditions such as HIV/AIDs, Cancer, Diabetes, etc and neurological disorders such as Schizophrenia, Autism and others. 

According to www.avert.org, an estimate of 33.4 million people were suffering from AIDS in 2008.  More than 25 million people have died of AIDS since 1981 (as of 2008).  Cancer is the number two cause of death in the United States with a total of over half a million deaths per year.  With innovations in medical nanotechnology, the suffering of so many people will be eliminated and avoided for future generations. 

Nanomedical technology also promises and has high benefits for economies of the U.S and the rest of the world as well. This is because of the fact that nanomedical technology holds a high potential due to the massive amount of people that must be cured of various diseases. There is a very high need for technologies for curing widespread diseases such as cancer.  Thus there is a high market potential.  Many countries, venture captitalists and investing corporations (such as Draper Fisher Jurvetson) are investing hundreds of millions in nanotechnology and nanomedical technology with recognition of market benefit.  Health care is one of the most open markets which can never go into decline.

 

Julia A. Moore writes in Small Science Big Challenge, “It is big business: Lux Research reports that sales of products incorporating nanotechnology were worth US$32 billion in 2005, and the US National Science Foundation predicts that nanotech-related goods and services could be a $1-trillion market by 2015” (Citation 13). 

 

The figure on the right (Image Citation 21) shows the global nanotechnology market segment in United States dollars (by billions).  It clearly shows an upward trend, especially for nanotools and nanodevices.