It will be driven by factors including increasing prevalence of infectious diseases, the emergence of more accurate molecular point-of-care technologies etc
The infectious diseases point-of-care testing (POCT) market is set to rise from $696.1 million in 2015 to just over $1.17 billion by 2022, representing a compound annual growth rate of 7.7 per cent, according to research and consulting firm GlobalData. The company’s latest report states that this relatively strong growth, which will occur across the 10 major markets of the US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, Japan, China, India, and Brazil, will be driven by factors including the increasing prevalence of infectious diseases, the emergence of more accurate molecular point-of-care (POC) technologies, advancing POC technology, and the growing home-testing market which encourages further adoption of POC devices.
Wenlu Hu, Analyst, GlobalData covering medical devices, explains, “The main barrier to the acceptability of infectious disease POC tests has been their relatively low accuracy. The sensitivity and specificity achieved with the currently available lateral flow technologies at the POC is, at present, inferior to those achievable in central labs utilising nucleic acid methods.”
Hu further said, “Recent technological innovations have enabled nucleic acid testing improvements that make POC molecular diagnostics possible. Notably promising technological advances include the loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), which allows for the rapid detection of DNA/ RNA without the requisite for thermal cycling, and the amplified redox assay, which can yield a highly multiplexed 20-minute nucleic acid test result using room-temperature-stable consumables.”
In addition to improving technologies, a rising prevalence of infectious diseases in developing countries has shifted focus towards preventive care and early diagnosis. Early disease diagnosis is crucial to reducing healthcare cost, and POC technology will play a vital role in treating patients in the most cost-effective manner.
Hu continues, “Infectious diseases are still the primary cause of mortality globally, and according to figures from the Clinical Microbiology and Infection journal, they claim approximately 14 million lives annually, making up around 25 per cent of the 56 million deaths recorded worldwide. The unprecedented increase in infectious diseases is a foreseeable long-term trend that is expected to result in a dramatic increase in the demand for cost-effective diagnostic techniques such as POCT.”
EP News Bureau