Boosted by COVID-19 and cancer tests, IVD market reaches $127B: Kalorama

2020 02 06 18 18 1550 Business Financial Results 400

The world in vitro diagnostics (IVD) market will reach $127.4 billion in 2022, according to LabPulse.com's sister publication Kalorama Information.

That's the finding from Kalorama's market research report, The Worldwide Market for In Vitro Diagnostics, 15th edition.

Bruce Carlson from Kalorama InformationBruce Carlson from Kalorama Information

COVID-19 testing will contribute $32.6 billion to the market but the bulk of the market revenues, $94.8 billion, will be generated by non-COVID-19 IVD tests.

According to Kalorama's analysts, the IVD market continues to expand and will exceed 140 billion by 2027, due not only to increased sales of existing products but also new product development.

In the past, it would not have been tough to imagine the use of in vitro diagnostics for diagnosis of potential head trauma in sports or to use tests to aid in diagnosing depression. This is now a reality.

Hopes for extremely wide usage of genetic tests have not always panned out, yet this segment is seeing test revenue growth even as medical societies and governments are weighing in with caution on these tests.

Mass spectrometry was once a novel technology used for diagnostics at a few university hospitals. It expanded into advanced microbiology systems, and now it is being used for diabetes testing and vitamin C tests.

The COVID-19 pandemic took focus and publicity away from cancer testing, but testing continued nonetheless. Kalorama projects that the markets for cancer testing will thrive: in 2022, revenue segments related to cancer testing are among the fastest growing: these include in situ hybridization tissue DNA tests, blood tests for molecular cancer markers, immunohistochemistry, and HPV molecular tests.

But it's not just cancer diagnostic testing that will find demand -- drug-of-abuse tests (the IVD terminology for tests outside of criminal or employment testing), cardiac markers, fecal occult blood tests, and glucose tests will show greater than average growth. Inherited disease tests and molecular tests for organ transplants are areas of high market growth.

Market leaders

Who earns this revenue? According to Kalorama, most of the revenues in the market are reported by about a dozen dominant companies.

The leading position of Abbott, one such dominant firm, is partly due to demand for its point-of-care products (stemming from its Alere acquisition in 2017), products developed for COVID-19 testing, and the continued presence of a testing market for infectious disease. Abbott's glucose test sales have also contributed.

Meanwhile, Roche's presence in large hospital systems in the U.S. and other areas, its partnerships with pharmaceutical companies, and its tissue diagnostics offerings keep it in a leading position.

Siemens Healthineers, Beckman Coulter, BioMérieux, QuidelOrtho, Bio-Rad, Sysmex, Cepheid, and Becton Dickinson are among other market leaders.

Geographic trends

Many factors support a robust world market.

Kalorama's global report sees China and Korea as key growth markets. China is no longer the double-digit grower of the past, but its market will still grow about twice as fast as the worldwide IVD market. The country has yet to reach the level of developed countries for spending levels on IVD, the report finds.

Many companies are seeking out Eastern Europe as a place to make gains. The European Diagnostic Manufacturers Association (EDMA), for instance, reports that new members, generally Eastern European nations, allocate more than three times their healthcare spending to IVD than do their newer members, generally the Western European nations.

Meanwhile, the IVD market in India is considered complex in its regulatory process and has a fragmented system for device registration and geographical market penetration. Despite the challenges, the IVD market there is growing and showing a steady flow of foreign investments. India is highly dependent on medical imports, and that market continues to grow despite the increasing number of domestic medical equipment suppliers.

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