Market Profile: Life Science Instrumentation for Small Molecule Analysis

Life science research has been a driving force behind the $40 billion analytical instrument market growth over the last decade, resulting in new products, applications, markets, and companies. These opportunities have revitalized revenues for many industry participants and fundamentally changed the analytical instrument business, technological advancements, and the focus and organization of top companies. .

Life science instrumentation demand for small molecule analysis in 2011

The last five years in the life science market have been filled with highs and perhaps more lows. During this time, the economic slowdown negatively impacted the life science industry. Private industries such as the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors cut back or delayed purchases, consolidated research efforts, and decreased production and inventories. However, demand from academia and governments continued to drive growth, particularly for genetic research. Stimulus funding added more fuel to the market, which helped the life science market weather economic uncertainties in North America, Europe, and Japan. Emerging markets such as Asia Pacific and Latin America experienced phenomenal growth and became significant markets for life science technologies.

Pharmaceutical companies focused on increasing productivity and efficiency. This focus has given rise to new laboratory tools that provide faster analysis, better throughput, and increased sensitivity. With attractive incentives, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are building up their infrastructure in many countries in Asia and Latin America. Many companies have moved manufacturing and R and D activities to these regions.

Small molecule analysis takes place primarily in drug discovery, development, and quality control laboratories. Of the overall life science instrumentation technologies used for the analysis of small molecules, separations technologies account for about one-third of the demand. Mass spectrometry and laboratory automation follow with 14% and 12%, respectively, while other technologies combine for the remaining 41%.

The foregoing data were extracted and adapted from SDi’s Market Analysis and Perspective report entitled A Complete Life Science Perspective. For more information, contact Glenn Cudiamat, VP of Research Services, Strategic Directions International, Inc., 6242 Westchester Parkway, Suite 100, Los Angeles, CA 90045, (310) 641-4982, fax: (310) 641-8851, e-mail:cudiamat@strategic-directions.com