Jul 26 2013
Research and Markets has announced the addition of the new report "Molecular Diagnostics - Technologies, Markets and Companies" to their offering.
This report describes and evaluates the molecular diagnostics technologies that will play an important role in practice of medicine, public health, pharmaceutical industry, forensics and biological warfare in the 21st century. This includes several polymerase chain reactions (PCR)-based technologies, fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH), peptide nucleic acids (PNA), electrochemical detection of DNA, sequencing, mitochondrial DNA, biochips, nanotechnology and proteomic technologies.
Initial applications of molecular diagnostics were mostly for infections but are now increasing in the areas of genetic disorders, preimplantation screening and cancer. Genetic screening tests, despite some restrictions, is a promising area for future expansion of in vitro diagnostic market. Molecular diagnostics is being combined with therapeutics and forms an important component of integrated healthcare. Molecular diagnostic technologies are also involved in development of personalized medicine based on pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics. Currently, there has been a considerable interest in developing rapid diagnostic methods for point-of-care and biowarfare agents such as anthrax.
The number of companies involved in molecular diagnostics has increased remarkably during the past few years. More than 800 companies have been identified to be involved in developing molecular diagnostics and 333 of these are profiled in the report along with tabulation of 779 collaborations. Despite the strict regulation, most of the development in molecular diagnostics has taken place in the United States, which has the largest number of companies.
The markets for molecular diagnostics technologies are difficult to estimate. Molecular diagnostics markets overlap with markets for non-molecular diagnostic technologies in the in vitro diagnostic market and are less well defined than those for pharmaceuticals. Molecular diagnostic markets are analyzed for 2012 according to technologies, applications and geographical regions. Forecasts are made up to 2022. A major portion of the molecular diagnostic market can be attributed to advances in genomics and proteomics. Biochip and nanobiotechnology are expected to make a significant contribution to the growth of molecular diagnostics.