Growth in the $54.6 billion in vitro diagnostics (IVD) market during 2013 came from emerging markets while developed nation markets grew at a much slower pace. All of the major IVD companies reported large increases in the top seven emerging markets. This is mostly fueled by privatization and health insurance initiatives by governments and employers. Medicare price cutting in the U.S. is expected to continue, and the IVD market in Europe should remain essentially flat for the next few years.
According to Kalorama Information’s biennial survey of the IVD industry, The Worldwide Market for In Vitro Diagnostic Tests, 9th Edition, China, Brazil and Korea were among the countries that received industry interest in the form of acquisitions, partnerships and expanded sales efforts.
- Not surprisingly, China was the target for most of these efforts. All of the top 10 IVD companies reported at least 25% increase in their sales in China, according to Kalorama. In 2012, Abaxis Inc. licensed Abbott Point of Care exclusive rights to distribute and sell its Piccolo Xpress clinical chemistry system and product line of single-use reagent discs in China. Qiagen inked a Chinese market distribution deal with KingMed Diagnostics for its HPV test.
- In Brazil, Roche and Qiagen were among the large companies reporting expanded sales. OPKO Diagnostics bought Sao Paulo-based distributor Silicon Comercio, and, in 2012, Trovagene announced that it would collaborate with the PIO XII Foundation in Brazil to evaluate the performance of the firm's urine-based molecular assay for HPV types associated with cervical lesions, in order to test the viability of their test for replacing pap smears in the Brazilian healthcare system.
- While Brazil and China have long been noticed, Korea was an increasing focus area for IVD companies in the past two years, according to Kalorama’s report. Life Technologies, part of Thermo Fisher, expanded its Korean distribution through South Korean instrument distributor Life Science Korea. Agilent began a partnership with a Korean university. Seegene and NanoBioSys, Inc. are among the Korean firms that launched products in the past few years.>
The report projects that these types of developments will continue. Emerging IVD markets, primarily Brazil, China and India, will still experience market growth two to three times global average for the in vitro diagnostics market. But, the report also makes clear that the dollars are still in developed systems, and their slow growth will tame growth forecasts in the industry. Yet, this emerging market trend is of only so much value, as this growth has a negligible effect to compensate for the lack of significant growth in major markets of Europe, Japan and the U.S.
The Worldwide Market for In Vitro Diagnostics, 9th Edition presents the trends, technologies, customer needs and major suppliers with an eye on how they are shaping the IVD industry. To learn more about the in vitro market, check out Kalorama Information's full report.
Thanks for reading!
Bruce Carlson
Publisher,
Kalorama Information
