Market Considerations for Nanomedicines and Theranostic Nanomedicines

Theranostics combines diagnostic tests with therapeutic interventions to create individualized therapies for patients. Nanotechnology is an enabling technology that helps produce single particle combinations and delivery systems for theranostic applications. Nanomaterials have novel properties derived from the manipulation of matter at the molecular level. Their application in medicine (nanomedicine) promises to revolutionize health care through theranostic nanomedicines (nanotheranostics). Nanotheranostics may enable physicians to diagnose diseases, deploy treatments, and monitor efficacies using a single platform. Although the future for nano appears bright, getting nanotheranostics from the benchtop to bedside applications may prove challenging. Researchers, entrepreneurs, investors, and consumers face a variety of technical, market, regulatory, legal, ethical, and policy challenges. This chapter provides an overview of commercialization of nanotechnology, nanomedicine, and theranostic nanomedicine (nanotheranostics) as a foundation for understanding the challenges of bring theranostics to market.