Healthcare - Facts and Forecasts

Laboratory diagnostic procedures are very valuable in detecting illnesses at an early stage. Because the samples involved, e.g. blood, urine, saliva and hair, are analyzed outside the body, this process is called in vitro diagnostics, or IVD. The IVD market, which includes laboratory equipment, instruments, sample containers, reagents and self-test kits, experienced a difficult period in the 1990s. Government regulations, relentless competition and declining sales led to a consolidation of the market through a large number of mergers. At the same time, the newly merged companies attempted to cut costs by automating processes and by developing technologies that would allow parallel analyses of samples.

IVD revenue forecast

Today, world IVD market volume stands at approximately 23 billion euros. Experts believe that the sector will experience a dramatic boom between now and 2010 (see chart, left). This rapid growth will be brought about by molecular diagnostic processes and an increasing trend toward decentralized and miniaturized diagnostic procedures (lab-on-a-chip). The strongest growth is expected to be registered in the fields of infectious diseases, oncology and cardiovascular diseases. The use of chip-based diagnostics in particular (biochips) will provide the market with additional momentum. Biochip diagnostics make it possible analysis of both nucleic acid markers (genes) associated with certain diseases and protein markers such as troponine (a heart attack marker). With the help of biochip technology, these molecular gene and protein markers could be isolated in a more decentralized manner in the future. Doctors would receive test results quickly, as there would be no need to transport samples over long distances or subject them to time-consuming examination in large labs. The goal of biochip diagnostics is to enable doctors to make a molecular diagnosis at the point of care and thus accelerate decisions on proper, and potentially life-saving, treatment.

World market for in vitro diagnostics (in €)

The biochip share of the IVD market is expected to increase sharply. The world market for biochips totaled about US-$ 90 million in 1999, not including reagents, materials, biochip analysis devices and software. In its World Biochip Market Summary 2001, consulting company Frost & Sullivan estimated that this market will grow by 1,000 % by 2004. Of course, optimistic forecasts have to be taken with a pinch of salt. For instance, the new chips will have to be competitively priced and of high quality. And, last but not least, medical personnel will have to accept and trust them.

Wolfgang Geiger, Ulrike Zechbauer