Healthcare industry bodies unite to form LifeSciencesUK
Four healthcare industry bodies have united to form a new initiative to advocate and support greater life sciences research and development in the UK.
LifeSciencesUK, which consists of the Association of British Healthcare Industries (ABHI), the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (APBI), the BioIndustry Association (BIA) and the British In Vitro Diagnostics Association (BIVDA) aims to increase investment in UK life sciences companies in developing new medicines and healthcare technology.
Pharmacy minister Earl Howe praised the “exciting initiative” as allowing the industry to work closer with the NHS in providing quality care and improving productivity through new technologies and innovations.
Global Biotechnology Reagents Market to Reach US$33 Billion by 2015, According to a New Report by Global Industry Analysts, Inc.
The market for biotechnology reagents is witnessing a paradigm shift from providing reagents to being suppliers of highly integrated systems featuring a range of reagents, labels, dyes, and protocols. Besides, in terms of ultimate product users, the market is witnessing a pronounced shift towards the corporate sector while use by academic sector is declining. Pre-packaged kits continue to gain popularity due to highly integrated combination of reagents, accessories and related software. With focus shifting from the gene to the protein, the industry is increasingly turning towards novel technologies that determine the activation state of a protein rather than unraveling the gene. Highly automated instrumentation is a key factor tempering use of reagents. Automation results in highly efficient and optimal utilization of reagents and minimizes wastage. However, continued popularity of manual procedures and a marked reluctance by scientists to upgrade their software skills is likely to ensure robust consumption of biotech reagents. Increase due to the continued use of reagent-intensive manual techniques will offset decline in reagent-use due to the high level of system automation.
Demand for biotechnology reagents and supplies is largely dependent upon the performance of biotechnology instrumentation market. Demand for biotechnology instrumentation continues to witness significant growth. Continual product developments are being witnessed in various industries, such as pharmaceutical/bio-pharmaceutical, agri-biotech, and food and beverages, which are expected to facilitate market growth. Pharmaceutical industry is a principal force driving the biotechnology revolution. A constant search for new drugs is a catalyst that stimulates interest in the public, biotech investors and instrument companies. Emerging sectors in drug discovery arena such as genomics, proteomics, DNA chips, combinatorial chemistry, and high throughput screening, are fuelling demand for bioinstrumentation. Agriculture and food and beverage sectors are also registering increased market demand.
The United States represents the largest market for biotechnology reagents, as stated by the new market research report on Biotechnology Reagents. With the first phase of Human Genome Mapping project completed successfully and ahead of schedule, the market for instruments and related supplies is on an upsurge in the US. Asia-Pacific represents the fastest growing market for biotechnology reagents, exhibiting a CAGR of more than 7.0% during the analysis period.
Immunoassay Reagents represents the largest segment. Cell Culture Reagents is the fastest growing segment, and is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 12% during the analysis period. Nucleic-Acid reagents, particularly DNA sequencing reagents, are expected to witness significant growth in the US. Approximately 10,000 US laboratories perform sequencing, and of these, one-third mainly uses automatic techniques. Manual sequencing uses slab gels, electrophoresis, and radioisotope (or alternative) labels for tracing.
Major players profiled in the report include Abbott Diagnostics, Beckman Coulter Inc., Becton Dickinson and Company, BioMérieux SA, Chemicon International Inc., EMD Biosciences Inc., EMD Millipore Corp., Fitzgerald Industries International, GE Healthcare, Life Technologies Corp., Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, PerkinElmer Inc., Promega Corp., Roche Diagnostics Ltd., Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics Inc., Sigma-Aldrich, among others.
The research report titled “Biotechnology Reagents: A Global Strategic Business Report” announced by Global Industry Analysts Inc., provides a comprehensive review of the biotechnology reagents market, current market trends, key growth drivers, new product innovations/launches, recent industry activity, and profiles of major/niche global market participants. The report provides annual sales estimates and projections for the global Biotechnology Reagents market for the years 2007 through 2015 for the regions, including US, Canada, Japan, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. Key product segments analyzed include Cell/Tissue Culture Reagents, DNA Sequencing/Synthesis Reagents, Electrophoresis Reagents, Flow Cytometry Reagents, Immunoassay Reagents, Liquid Chromatography Reagents, Polymerase Chain Reaction Reagents, and Protein Synthesis Reagents.