The Indian lab chemical sector is expected to grow at a much higher rate of 20 to 25 per cent per annum in the year 2012-13 as against the projected growth rate of 12-18 per cent last year. With this new forecast, lab chemicals markets in the country is all set to add another Rs.250 crores to its earlier value of Rs. 1000 crores, topping Rs. 1250 crores for the year ahead , according to industry experts.
The main reason for the growth of the markets is attributed to the establishment of new academic institutions across the country especially in the areas of biological and chemical sciences. As the pharmaceutical sector is entering a new growth trajectory, more investments are expected in the R&D areas of life sciences and chemical sciences. This will enable more test and analysis laboratories to come up in the near future, they point out.
This is apart from the already existent clinical research organizations (CROs), research and development organizations, bulk drug and API industries. All these organizations and institutions need lab chemicals for testing quality of the products or for analysing or for doing any kind of innovative development in the food industry, chemical industry and biological areas of research and development.
“We can expect a better growth for the laboratory chemicals markets this year especially in the academic sector, because the state and central governments have announced the establishment of educational institutions at the intermediate, degree and university levels across the country. In Andhra Pradesh itself more than 6100 junior colleges are expected to come up in the coming year. This is definitely a great opportunity for the lab chemical traders to tap the market in the state,” said Irshad Ali, Managing Director, Kelvin Scientific Lab Instruments and Chemic, Hyderabad.
“In fact most of the companies entered the pharma sector as lab chemical manufactures. But as the scope for marketing was limited, they turned towards more profitable pastures of bulk drugs and APIs manufacturing. As the Indian pharma industry is fast moving to a higher growth orbit, the future is quite promising for lab chemicals manufactures. Once it moves from mere manufacturing of raw chemicals to innovative development of fine chemicals, the prospects for lab chemicals markets will definitely improve in the coming years” said K.V.Rangarao, Executive Director, BDMA.
Though during 2008-09 the lab chemical sector saw a fall in business due to the global economic funk, prior to that it had been expanding at a fast pace between 18 and 20 per cent growth rate. The markets during 2009-10 too were sluggish.
The global markets
The global lab chemicals markets too are expected to perform better in the coming three years.
According to a report from Global Industry Analysis, the laboratory chemical reagents market will reach US$16.5 billion by 2015 mainly due to the increased use of laboratory chemical reagents in basic research coupled with large-scale commercial applications. Moreover the growing interest of world scientific community in laboratory chemical reagents also will contribute to market growth.
In addition to this, there is a continuous refinement and advances in technologies such as cell culture, recombinant DNA and bio-therapeutics which has enhanced the scientific community’s ability to identify and produce important human therapeutic agents over the years. This is also another significant factor that had fuelled the robust growth of laboratory chemical reagents market during the past several years. Further the large-scale commercial applications and increasing application in basic research are also spurring the demand for laboratory chemical reagents. The emerging disciplines such as neurosciences and proteomics are also expected to help drive the market growth.
As the healthcare sector is growing, more and more number of diagnostics centres are emerging across the world. Especially in countries like India, China, Central Asia and other African and European countries, the lab chemical markets are poised to have a positive growth. Antibodies are becoming increasingly significant, both as diagnostic as well as therapeutic tools for targeting the diseased cells and cell compounds. A wide variety of new antibodies that could offer effective treatment for a range of diseases are being released into the market, owing to technological advances in the field.
The market for antibodies, especially for monoclonal antibodies that offer effective treatment for diseases including infectious and cardiovascular, inflammatory diseases and cancer and autoimmune diseases, is rapidly expanding the world over. Physicians are turning more and more towards monoclonal antibodies, as a method of treating various diseases, since the effectiveness of traditional medicines is found to be limited and could even cause dangerous side effects. The market indicators point to the growing importance of antibodies and particularly the monoclonal antibodies, as effective therapy for several diseases, due to its negligible and low toxicity level and potential to serve as a catalyst to deliver a drug. With the increasing launches of new monoclonal antibody therapeutic products and rising indications for current products, the market for antibodies is expected to rise through the forecast period. The global market for antibodies is projected to expand significantly in the coming years. Laboratory chemical reagents market is poised to benefit from such growth in the antibodies sector.
The United States represents the largest regional market for laboratory chemical reagents worldwide according to a new market research report on laboratory chemical reagents. The US laboratory chemical reagents market is being driven by technological developments and innovations in the nucleic acid testing procedures, advancements in molecular pathology assays and improvements in cell/tissue culture technology among others.
Asia-Pacific represents the fastest growing market, with sales of laboratory chemical reagents projected to grow at a compounded annual rate of 5.7 per cent through 2015. Molecular biology constitutes the largest application area of laboratory chemical reagents. Molecular biology, the study of interaction of macromolecules present in living cells, utilizes reagents of classes such as monoclonal & polyclonal antibodies;gene expression, vectors, cloning & sequencing; and gene synthesis among others. Cytokine & Chemokine Testing represents the fastest growing application area with consumption projected to grow at a compounded annual rate of 6.2 per cent over the analysis period.
A plethora of new opportunities in molecular biology were unveiled with the conclusion of the human genome project, consequently expanding the versatility of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Currently, PCR technologies are extensively used in numerous molecular biology applications including gene expression, paternity testing, forensic finger printing and DNA sequencing, apart from the conventional drug discovery segment. Increasing sales of thermal cyclers are driving the market sales of PCR reagents as well.
The market for PCR reagents is growing on account of the increased awareness and acceptance of real-time PCR concept. Real-time PCR reagents score over standard PCR reagents by offering capabilities to instantly quantify improved DNA sequences. Predicted substantial increase in real-time PCR reagents’ sale is expected to concurrently improve the value of the PCR reagents market. The reagents are now user friendly and sophisticated on account of premixes, which are also gaining momentum.
Major players and suppliers across the globe include BD Biosciences, Beckman Coulter Inc., bioMérieux, CALTAG Laboratories, EMD Chemicals Inc., GE Healthcare, Life Technologies Corporation, Lonza Biologics Ltd., Meridian Life Science Inc., PerkinElmer Inc., Promega Corporation, QIAGEN, R&D Systems, SAFC Biosciences Inc., Shimadzu Biotech, Sigma-Aldrich Corp, Strategic Diagnostics Inc., Takara Bio Inc., Wako Pure Chemical Industries Ltd., Waters Corp among others.