Originally Published IVD Technology April 2002
Lab-on-a-chip market report optimistic
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Three
components of an integrated microchemistry lab from Sandia National Laboratories
(Livermore, CA) fit easily into a pea pod. The entire system fits into
a package about the size of a paperback book.
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According to a market report issued by Technical Insights (San Antonio, TX), the worldwide market for microarrays, microfluidics devices, and other biochips is expected to grow at an annual rate of 65% and reach $3.3 billion by 2004. Complete chemical lab-on-a-chip (LOC) technologies will have the greatest impact on the medical diagnostics and laboratory instrumentation markets.
"This is the future of the IVD industry," says Katherine Austin, Technical Insights biotech analyst. Austin says genetic analysis is the single most important application of LOCs. Standard techniques that can be performed with LOCs include electrophoresis, mass spectroscopy, PCR, DNA sequencing, Southern blots, 2-D gel separations, ELISA assays, chromatography, and flow cytometry.
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Revenues from point-of-care
(POC) and home diagnostic products and monitoring devices are projected to grow
at an annual rate of over 14%, from $1.6 billion in 1998 to more than $3 billion
in 2003.
Austin says IVD
companies are dedicating more R&D resources to LOC technology development,
which is indicative of the growing interest in LOCs. "Most IVD companies spend
only 1% of sales on R&D; however, research-stage LOCs are getting a lot
of attention as complete medical-analysis laboratories because of their unique
sample preparation and capability for postseparation analysis," she says.
There are two main
types of LOCs—microarrays and those dealing with microfluidics. "The use
of microarrays has exploded to the point where these tiny wafers are now standard
laboratory equipment for almost anyone wanting to do any kind of high-throughput
analysis," says Austin. According to the report, the DNA array market is expected
to expand from $48 million in 1997 to more than $370 million by 2003.
Although the microarray market has taken off, Austin says there are some barriers involved in microfluidics. "The use of LOCs in microfluidic applications will be growing in the next couple of years. Reliability and accuracy are prime concerns. Accuracy cannot be sacrificed for speed when it comes to healthcare," says Austin.
Adoption of LOCs
for home diagnostic applications is not growing as fast as other areas because
the market is saturated with inexpensive, qualitative tests. "Most home
diagnostics won't be affected," says Austin. "More-complex home
diagnostic applications like drug-level monitoring, cancer markers, and infectious
diseases may enter the market, but significant market growth [for those] won't
happen for 7 to 10 years."
Austin says the slight lag in the development of LOC technology is a catch-22. "Until LOCs become widely available at a reasonable price, no one is going to want to buy them, but unless there's a demand for them, no one can afford to take them to market," she says.
Despite this phenomenon, Austin remains confident that demand will eventually emerge. "It's almost certain that LOCs will progress and develop without interruption for at least the next two decades."
Photo courtesy Sandia National Laboratories
Copyright ©2002 IVD Technology
