Look for Advancements in Treatments for Seniors

Pharmaceutical companies are already looking ahead to the future--they have to. Putting a new product on the market often requires years of research science just to formulate what may develop into a promising treatment or cure for a medical condition. The process produces more misses than hits. Time and money are involved.

After a drug shows promise in the laboratory come years of clinical research to determine the effectiveness of the drug and potential side effects and untoward actions. Before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will consider a drug to be approved for release, there is a three-step trial process through which the newly-developed drug must successfully pass. Many proposed drugs never make it through the trial process. Time and money are involved.

In 2011, the first of the baby boomer generation are old enough to retire. They will be followed through the next decade and after until all 77 million of them cross that life threshold. This generation represents 26 percent of the total American population and much of their money is being, and will be, spent on products and services for their health reports Seeking Alpha.

Investment fund bankers and and hedge fund companies the world over are looking at what is claimed to be the greatest untapped health market: sexual dysfunction. Pfizer's success with its erectile dysfunction medication, Viagra, undoubtedly has investors salivating about the profit potential of upcoming products and services in this area.

Aurora Health Care states that 43 percent of women of all ages, and particularly those in the 45 to 64-year-old category are affected. The statistics for the incidence of sexual dysfunction in men is more difficult to determine, with a concern from health experts that men under-report this condition. But sales of erectile dysfunction medications and products suggest that there is a robust market for this male sexual dysfunction and others.

The market follows profit, so look for advancements in the realm of sexual dysfunction to be on the front burners during the next decade.

The prevalence of Alzheimer's disease in the American population was second only to back problems in the years 2004 to 2007, as reported by Harvard University. This is a condition to which much research is already dedicated and is likely to remain in the forefront through the next decade--and beyond--if no successful cure or treatment is found.

Again, an aging population means that the prevalence of this condition is likely to rise even higher. There are few conditions as devastating to be diagnosed with than Alzheimer's disease. Even now research is finding new tools to stave off the advent of the disease, but there is no known prevention.

Good nutrition is going to receive even more press than it does now. The epidemic of obesity in America is nowhere nearing an end and along with that has come an increase in the incidence of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease. The market for diet and nutritional supplements will continue to bring big profits.