Albumin is an animal protein typically found in human blood serum, eggs, and milk. It is an essential serum-binding protein that has several important functions. Albumin constitutes of 75-80 percent of plasma colloid oncotic pressure and 50 percent of protein content. To be precise, albumin is a family of globular proteins and serum proteins are the most common ones. All of these are water-soluble and perform a variety of functions such as binding water, fatty acids, hormones, and bilirubin. Albumin has various medical and general use cases where it can be consumed as a general health supplement or as a medical product for specific health issues. Majorly, it is used for replacing blood volume loss occurred due to a trauma such as burns or severe injuries. Other medical uses of albumin include treating low albumin levels caused by dialysis, liver failure, pancreatitis, bypass surgery, etc. Human albumin is a global market that constitutes of many key players in specific regions.

Global Human Albumin Market Size, Trends, and Market Share:

The global human albumin market is huge and it is expected to attain a market value of 1,260 MT by 2020. The market has different growth rates in both the emerging and developed economies. Europe and North America have a relatively lower Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 3 percent whereas it is quite better in the emerging economies with a CAGR of approximately 8 percent. Two key players in the market are CSL and Grifols that respectively rank on number 1 and 2. On a regional level, Italy is a major consumer of human albumin followed by the U.S. and China. However, in the APAC region, the per capita consumption of albumin is quite low in the counties such as India due to limited access to healthcare solutions and lack of affordability of healthcare products.

Global Albumin Market Supplier Overview:

Among the global suppliers of albumin, apart from CSL and Grifols, Shire is also a major player in the supply market, and these 3 together hold more than 50 percent of market share. Both Grifols and CSL dominate the Chinese albumin market which is one of the major producer and consumer of human albumin. Some other regional players based in China also have a global presence including Hualan Biologics and Shanghai Raas.

Global Albumin Market Price Analysis:

Human albumin is available in different dilution rates i.e. 4-5 percent and 20-25 percent. The average import price of both variants of human albumin has stabilized in the past 5 years but it is still not at a level where every citizen can buy it.

Human Albumin Clinical Implications:

Clinical implications of human albumin include a wide range of use cases that include increasing the volume of blood in blood vessels, the treatment of acute liver failure, replacing low blood protein, and recovering from the loss of albumin. All of these scenarios can occur in different circumstances such as a shock, in the case of an accident, complications in a surgical procedure or malnutrition. The compound is also prescribed by the doctors as needed. The most common way of consuming human albumin is to inject it in the vein. However, this requires the active and direct supervision of the doctor in a clinical setting or facility. The prescription and the amount of albumin differ as per the patient’s body weight, and existing medical conditions and medication. Lastly, albumin is a potent compound and it also may cause some side effects if not used properly. Therefore, the discretion of an experienced doctor is advised.

Human Albumin Business Opportunities:

Human albumin is produced at two concentrations i.e. 4-5 percent and 20-25 percent. The 4-5 percent variant is an isotonic solution suitable for fluid replacement in hypovolaemia. On the other hand, the 20-25 percent variant is hypotonic but it is a hyperoncotic solution for the treatment of fluid loss. Both the albumin concentrations are derived from human plasma. There are several methods of albumin production and each has different levels of viability. Plasma protein fraction, cold ethanol fractionation, and chromatographic purification are some common methods of human albumin production. The other less popular method of producing albumin is a combined method where chromatographic purification aids the cold ethanol fractionation process.

Plasma protein fraction is a high-yield method but it also has lower minimum albumin purity while chromatographic purification can also deliver high yields with greater purity. Entrepreneurs can prefer to employ any of these methods as per their niche requirements such as albumin fractionation, level of purity, end-use industry, etc.

Human albumin can be of critical importance in specific situations due to its fast, positive effects on the human body. However, the import price of human albumin is quite high in many regions across the globe and therefore, the people are not able to take its full advantage. Nonetheless, the supplier landscape is changing due to rising demands of albumin in emerging economies such as India and China, and these are good signs that the industry is sure to grow rapidly in the near future.

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