A new report from consulting firm Grandview Research predicts the global biomarker market, driven significantly by the growth of companion diagnostics and personalized medicine, will reach $78.2 billion by 2024.
Factors anticipated to influence growth include the need for disease-specific biomarkers for the development of diagnostics, increasing research and development funding, and the rising prevalence of cancer and cardiovascular diseases—the result of an aging population. These factors should create significant opportunities in the coming years. Other factors affecting growth include increased government spending on research, and the market launch of diagnostics kits for screening high-risk patient populations.
Other key findings of the research show:
- The safety biomarkers segment captured the largest share of the market, about 40%, in 2015 due to increased routine healthcare checkups and the growing base of the geriatric population, which is at a high risk of developing a host of diseases.
- The validation biomarkers segment is one of the fastest growing market segments. Increasing R&D initiatives to develop more specific biomarkers, and the subsequent development of companion diagnostics with enhanced accuracy and sensitivity are key factors in this growth.
- Biomarkers used by pharmaceutical companies to accelerate the develop of new drugs and as predictive tools in whether a drug will fail helped drug discovery dominate the application segment in 2015.
- The diagnostic segment will experience significant growth due to the growing awareness of routine healthcare checkups and rising prevalence of various diseases.
- In 2015, the oncology segment dominated revenue generation at more than $9.2 billion due to increases in the number of diagnostic tests for oncology drugs and the increasing burden of cancer around the world.
- The cardiovascular segment is expected to experience the fastest growth over the forecast period, at more than 14%, a result of increasingly sedentary lifestyles and obesity.
- North America held the largest regional share of the market, around 39% in 2015, while Asia Pacific is anticipated to be the fastest growing biomarker market owing to factors, such as the developing economic conditions, a large base of the target population, and a favorable regulatory scenario for clinical trials.
