The life science instrumentation market recorded revenue of $3.9 billion in 2015 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.1% from 2016 to 2020. Next generation sequencing (NGS) instruments are outpacing the growth of other research instruments due to reductions in sequencing costs. In this global market, Life Technologies, Agilent Technologies, and Illumina are the key competitors, while pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms as well as academic and research institutes are the key end users of the research. Single cell analysis is in demand particularly because it offers more details on genetic analysis, a factor that will drive demand for instruments such as flow cytometers and NGS tools.
Market Drivers and Restraints
Key drivers of growth for this market are:
- Single cell analysis offering better research results
- Increasing focus on sequencing technology to understand the root cause of a disease
- Increase in research spending by governments across the world
- User-friendly and advanced bioinformatics tools
- Proteomics needed for research instrumentation
- Shift of economic power from BRICS to other regions (causing demand for sophisticated research centers)
Key restraints of growth for this market are:
- High costs involved with drug discovery process
- Shortage of funding in emerging economies
- Saturated clinical research market and penetration of research instruments in diagnostics application
Regional Analysis
- Increasing research in the field of proteomics and increasing government support for investments in biotechnology will help drive growth in the life science instrumentation market in the North American region. In addition, the increased presence of a large number of biotechnology firms in the United States and Canada spurs market growth in the region.
- Europe holds more than 5,000 biotechnology firms where the biotech industry generated revenue of $23.9 billion, growth of 14%, in 2014. The industry also witnessed a 14% increase in research and development (R&D) spending for 2014 valued at $5.6 billion, which is incomparable to the 4% decline in R&D spending in 2013. This increase shows the biotechnology firms’ interest in life sciences instrumentation to help with the drug discovery and validation process.
- Key participants such as BD Biosciences have invested in localized R&D facilities in China, given the growth of the firm in the region.
- Latin American countries will undergo high growth due to increasing safety concerns, which will drive the demand for life sciences instrumentation.
Predictions
- There will be an increase in funding from government in emerging countries.
- DNA sequencing is expected to replace many conventional techniques like electrophoresis.
- Participants’ focus on clinical diagnostics applications will slow down research market growth.
- The research instrumentation market will become saturated.
- There will be an increase in demand from biotechnology industries.
Frost & Sullivan, a global research and growth consulting company, also covers various trends in the analytical instrumentation market. We have published several research studies in this area including Global Laboratory Analytical Instrumentation Market, Global Process Analytical Instrumentation Market, Global Analytical X-ray Instrumentation Market, Global Analytical Instrumentation Market in Food Testing, Global Analysis of the Oil and Gas Analytical Instrumentation Market, and Analysis of the United States Water and Wastewater Analytical Instrumentation Market.
For any queries related to the article, kindly contact the author Janani at jananib@frost.com.
