Europe Gelatin and Bone Glue Market Size, Share, and Growth Forecast 2026 - 2033

The Europe gelatin and bone glue market size is likely to be valued at US$362.5 million in 2026 and is estimated to reach US$629.3 million by 2033, growing at a CAGR of 8.2% during the forecast period 2026 to 2033, driven by the rising number of orthopedic procedures, increasing use of absorbable biomaterials, and advances in regenerative medicine. Europe's ageing population is increasing the need for joint replacement, fracture repair, and other orthopedic procedures.

Driver- Rising Joint Procedures to Propel Demand for Absorbable Biomaterials

Europe's ageing population is increasing osteoarthritis, fragility fractures, and other conditions that require orthopedic treatment. This is anticipated to support demand for gelatin-based hemostats, regenerative scaffolds, and materials used around bone and joint surgery. Nearly 1 million hip replacements and 680,000 knee replacements were performed across EU countries in 2022, as per the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Both procedures have increased substantially over the past decade. Ageing will likely reinforce this trend.

Eurostat reported that 99 million EU residents were aged 65 and above in 2025, representing 22% of the population. As surgical volumes rise, hospitals need absorbable materials that control bleeding, support tissue healing, and avoid permanent foreign material wherever possible. This is predicted to create a durable clinical base for gelatin products and, increasingly, bioresorbable bone adhesives.

Advances in Biomaterials to Expand Gelatin into Regenerative Medicine

Gelatin is moving beyond conventional capsules and hemostatic sponges into hydrogels, bioinks, tissue scaffolds, implant coatings, and advanced wound materials. This transition is increasing its medical value. In 2026, GELITA partnered with Black Drop to develop high-performance GelMA bioinks for three-dimensional tissue models and implant-related applications. GELITA has also introduced ultra-low-endotoxin gelatin designed for sensitive biomedical uses.

Rousselot demonstrated a similar shift at COMPAMED 2025, where it presented gelatin foams, films, flowable hemostats, fillers, and microneedle prototypes. These developments allow manufacturers to tailor gelatin's viscosity, degradation, mechanical strength, and biological performance. As regenerative medicine becomes more clinically relevant, specialized medical gelatin is anticipated to serve as a functional biomaterial rather than simply a pharmaceutical excipient.

Restraint- Animal-origin Safety Rules May Boost Sourcing and Compliance Requirements

Dependence on bovine, porcine, and other animal tissues creates additional safety and regulatory work for medical gelatin manufacturers. The concern is not that properly manufactured European gelatin routinely transmits disease. Rather, companies must demonstrate that sourcing and processing adequately control biological risks. EMA guidance specifically addresses transmissible spongiform encephalopathy risks associated with animal-derived medicinal materials.

For bone-derived gelatin, it requires controls such as removal of skulls and spinal cord from collected bovine bones and additional restrictions for vertebral material under certain BSE-risk conditions. These requirements increase traceability, supplier qualification, documentation, and manufacturing controls. They can also make it harder to introduce new animal-derived biomaterials into implants. This is encouraging some developers to investigate recombinant collagen and other animal-free alternatives, particularly for high-purity clinical applications.

Opportunity- Injectable Bone Adhesives to Reduce Dependence on Complex Hardware

Injectable bone adhesives are predicted to create a new treatment option for fractures that are difficult to stabilize using plates and screws alone. Their greatest potential is in small, irregular, and peri-articular bone fragments, where conventional hardware can be technically challenging. Europe now has a concrete clinical example. The U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) approved a first-in-human study of OsStic in 2026 for tibial plateau fractures.

The material is injectable, self-hardening, osteoconductive, and designed to adhere to both bone and metal. Its first human application was completed successfully in Leeds in August 2026. If larger studies confirm safety and performance, such products could complement conventional fixation, reduce the amount of hardware needed in selected cases, and create applications in trauma surgery, sports injuries, dental reconstruction, and spinal procedures.

Animal-free Collagen to Open New Medical Applications

Recombinant collagen is anticipated to create an opportunity to remove many of the sourcing and variability issues associated with animal-derived proteins. Precision fermentation can produce materials with controlled composition, consistent batches, and no bovine or porcine tissue. This could be particularly valuable in implanted medical devices, regenerative medicine, sports medicine, and advanced wound care. Germany-based Evonik moved this approach closer to clinical use in September 2025 when it introduced clinical-grade VECOLLAN, a recombinant, non-animal-derived collagen-like protein.

Validated material is being supplied to development partners from 2026. The company identifies orthopedics and sports medicine among its target areas. The opportunity does not necessarily replace gelatin immediately. Instead, recombinant materials are anticipated to create a premium category for applications where extremely consistent composition, low biological risk, ethical sourcing, and engineered material properties justify higher production costs.

Product Type Insights

Gelatin is predicted to lead with a share of approximately 65.4% in 2026, because it combines biocompatibility, biodegradability, absorbability, and flexible processing in one material. Its properties can be adjusted to produce sponges, films, hydrogels, foams, microspheres, coatings, and injectable systems. This versatility is difficult to achieve with several synthetic materials. Gelatin also has a long history of pharmaceutical and surgical use, which gives manufacturers considerable safety, processing, and regulatory experience.

Bone glue is estimated to be the fastest-growing segment in the forecast period, as conventional fracture fixation has practical limitations. Plates, screws, wires, and pins work well for large fragments, but fixation becomes difficult when bones are fragmented, irregularly shaped, or located near delicate joint surfaces. Adhesive materials could stabilize small fragments without requiring additional metal hardware. The key technical improvement is adhesion under wet conditions. Bones are surrounded by blood and biological fluids, which makes conventional adhesives ineffective. New biomimetic materials are being engineered specifically for this environment.

Application Insights

Arthroplasty is anticipated to dominate with a share of nearly 39.7% in 2026, because Europe performs a very large number of hip and knee replacement procedures, and these surgeries frequently require biomaterials for bleeding control, defect filling, tissue management, and implant-supporting applications. The underlying patient population is also expanding. Osteoarthritis is the main reason for hip and knee replacement, and age is one of its prominent risk factors.

Sports injury is expected to remain in the second position in 2026, as ligament, tendon, cartilage, and bone injuries require materials that can support repair without permanently remaining in the body. Gelatin hydrogels, collagen scaffolds, and bioadhesives fit this requirement because their mechanical, degradation, and biological properties can be adjusted for tissue regeneration. Companies are consequently developing biomaterials specifically for sports medicine. Evonik identifies sports medicine as one of the potential applications for clinical-grade VECOLLAN recombinant collagen.

Germany Gelatin and Bone Glue Market Trends

Germany will likely dominate with a share of approximately 34.8% in 2026, as it combines exceptionally high orthopedic procedure volumes with an established domestic biomaterials industry. OECD data show that Germany had one of the highest hip and knee replacement rates among reporting countries in 2023. Hip replacement reached about 351 procedures per 100,000 people, and the country has also recorded a strong long-term rise in knee replacement. The German Arthroplasty Registry strengthens this clinical infrastructure.

Nearly 380,000 hip and knee arthroplasty datasets were submitted to the Endoprothesenregister Deutschland (EPRD) for 2023, bringing its database to around 3 million records. This provides a superior environment for evaluating implants, surgical techniques, and supporting biomaterials.

U.K. Gelatin and Bone Glue Market Trends

The U.K. is estimated to be the fastest-growing market in 2026 with a share of around 25.5%, supported by high surgical activity, expanding sports participation, and active clinical translation of new biomaterials. The National Joint Registry recorded 263,865 joint procedures in 2024, including 116,901 hip procedures and 134,652 knee procedures. Its database has now surpassed 4.5 million procedures. Demand outside conventional arthroplasty is also expanding. Sport England reported that 64.6% of adults, or 30.9 million people, achieved recommended activity levels during November 2024 to November 2025. That was 859,000 more active adults than one year earlier. Rising sporting participation boost the treatment base for ligament, cartilage, tendon, and fracture injuries.

France Gelatin and Bone Glue Market Trends

France is anticipated to account for a share of nearly 14.3% in 2026, because its ageing population is expanding the number of patients susceptible to osteoarthritis, fractures, and degenerative joint disease, while the country already has a well-developed biomaterials supply chain. INSEE reported that people aged 65 and above represented 21.8% of France's population at the beginning of 2025, compared with 18.4% in 2015. The proportion reached about 22% at the beginning of 2026.

France also has an important domestic gelatin manufacturing ecosystem. Rousselot has major European operations in France, while Weishardt is headquartered in Graulhet. Both participate in the Gelatine Manufacturers of Europe.

Italy Gelatin and Bone Glue Market Trends

Italy will likely exhibit a s share of around 10.8% in 2026, owing to its unusually old population. Istat reported that people aged 65 and above reached 25.1% of the population at the beginning of 2026, making Italy the oldest EU country by this measure.

The population aged 85 and above also climbed to more than 2.5 million. These demographics support sustained treatment of osteoarthritis, fragility fractures, and other age-related orthopedic conditions. Italy also has established gelatin manufacturing through companies such as Lapi Gelatine and Italgel. On the clinical side, the Italian Arthroplasty Registry is coordinated by the Italian National Institute of Health and covers hip, knee, shoulder, and ankle replacements.

Spain Gelatin and Bone Glue Market Trends

In 2026, Spain is projected to account for a share of approximately 8.2%, as both its elderly population and orthopedic treatment requirements rise gradually. Spain's National Statistics Institute reported that more than 10.17 million residents were older than 64 at the beginning of 2025, accounting for 20.7% of the country's population. The number increased by about 250,000 in one year. The country's strong participation in football and other sports also supports demand for treatment of ligament, tendon, cartilage, and bone injuries. Recent research across Europe's five largest football leagues, including La Liga, continues to document significant ACL injury incidence.

The Europe gelatin and bone glue market is moderately consolidated, although the emerging bone-glue segment remains more fragmented and innovation-led. The medical and pharmaceutical gelatin business is led by established collagen specialists, including GELITA, Rousselot, PB Leiner, Weishardt, Lapi Gelatine, and several regional manufacturers. The Gelatine Manufacturers of Europe currently lists companies such as GELITA, Rousselot, PB Leiner, Weishardt, Italgel, Lapi Gelatine, Juncà Gelatines, Trobas Gelatine, Ewald Gelatine, and Jellice Pioneer Europe among its members. This gives Europe a superior domestic manufacturing base.

Competition is now shifting from standard pharmaceutical gelatin toward high-purity, endotoxin-controlled, modified, and application-specific biomaterials. The bone-glue side is much less mature. Competition is currently based more on clinical validation, wet-bone adhesion, resorption, mechanical strength, and ease of injection than on manufacturing capacity. Ireland-based Biomimetic Innovations is an important European developer through its OsStic technology. OsStic combines calcium phosphate, calcium silicate, and phosphoserine, and is designed to provide adhesive stabilization while gradually remodeling into natural bone.

Key Industry Developments

• In August 2026, Biomimetic Innovations announced the first-in-human use of its OsStic Injectable Synthetic Bone Void Filler at Leeds Teaching Hospitals in the U.K. The technology was used during reconstruction of a lateral tibial plateau fracture. The procedure was successful, and the patient was discharged on the second day after surgery. The case marked the first patient enrolled in its clinical study of the bioadhesive.
• In May 2026, Dublin City University announced that OsStic, co-developed by DCU researchers and Biomimetic Innovations, had received U.K. MHRA approval for a first-in-human clinical investigation. The study is evaluating its safety and performance in tibial plateau fractures. OsStic uses phosphoserine with a calcium-phosphate-based material to provide adhesion and structural support in wet bone environments.
• In March 2026, GELITA and Black Drop signed a research and development agreement to create high-performance bioinks for biomedical uses. The project combines GELITA's gelatin and hydrogel expertise with Black Drop's 3D-bioprinting platform. The companies are studying new GelMA variants for applications such as three-dimensional tissue models and implants.