COVID-19 Will Be With Us For Years, So Will a Large In Vitro Diagnostics Market

Report Finds: $127 Billion Dollar Market, Abbott is #1 IVD Company, Cancer Testing High-Growth Area, China and Korea are Key International Regions.

The worldwide in vitro diagnostic (IVD) market will reach $127.4 billion dollars in 2022, according to IVD market research firm Kalorama Information.  That's the finding from the firm's 15th large-scale IVD industry report, The Worldwide Market for In Vitro Diagnostic Tests, released this month. The market will grow to $140.1 billion in 2027, and COVID-19 testing will drive that market. The larger part of the IVD market is non-COVID testing and diabetes and cancer testing products, which will also drive the industry to growth.

Kalorama has called the IVD market for two decades in detailed reports based on company financial information, interviews  and medical statistics  (FOR MORE INFORMATION: https://kaloramainformation.com/product/the-worldwide-market-for-in-vitro-diagnostic-tests-15th-edition/).  In its latest report, Kalorama finds that COVID-19 testing is the largest contributor to the market and the growth of the market over the five year period forecasted in the report. Kalorama forecasts that $32.6 billion will originate from COVID-19 tests in 2022. But the bulk of the market sales in 2022, an estimated $94.8 billion, will be from non-COVID-19 IVD tests.

Still COVID is the largest single-disease test segment and Kalorama's analysts project testing will continue through the five year forecast period of the report. That is because the disease shows no signs of being eradicated. "Over the past two years, scientists have come to see that SARS-CoV-2 yields non-sterilizing immunity; people who have been infected or vaccinated are still at risk of reinfection. So experts expect that the virus won't go away any time soon" per a recent Yale university study described in Yale News.

For a market researcher the presence of a disease means a longer period of revenues from products to assist in prevention and treatment of disease.

"For a diagnostic market to continue there needs to be only the threat of disease," said Bruce Carlson, SVP Publications at Science and Medicine Group, owner of Kalorama Information. "Cases will have to be ruled out and testing ready for any variant outbreaks. We have a long way before this is not a concern of diagnostics."

In its report, Kalorama market analysts tackle the question of what happens when COVID-19 revenues that have been boosting the major firms like Abbott, Roche and Quidel decline.

"Testing and revenues earned from that testing will decline over time. So what happens to IVD? Does it go into recession.  Not at all. COVID-19 revenues are replaced by other tests," says Carlson.

According to Kalorama these other test segments are led by cancer testing, where spending on testing has always been a bit higher and patients are frequently tested as well. This includes in situ hybridization tissue DNA tests, blood tests for molecular cancer markers, immunohistochemistry, and HPV molecular tests.  Also prevention tests such as pap smear, traditional stains, fecal occult blood tests and PSAs are growth areas.

But it's not just cancer diagnostic testing that will find demand—drug of abuse tests (the IVD terminology for tests outside of criminal or employment testing), cardiac markers, fecal occult blood tests, and glucose tests will show greater than average growth. Inherited tests and molecular tests for organ transplants are also areas of high market growth.

"So while COVID-19 revenues decline gradually, these other markets will produce at least 2% growth in the market," says Carlson.

Who earns this revenue?  Kalorama reveals that most of the revenue in the market comes from about a dozen dominant companies.  Abbott Diagnostics leads the IVD market, followed by Roche. Abbott capitalizes on its position in point-of-care (POC) from its Alere acquisition in 2017 and the COVID-19 epidemic and the continued presence of a testing market for infectious disease where the company's product offering is strong.  Glucose test sales have also contributed.  Roche maintains a commanding presence in large hospital systems in the U.S. and other areas, partnerships with pharmaceutical companies and tissue diagnostics offerings—all of which keep Roche in a top position. Siemens Healthineers, Beckman Coulter, bioMérieux, Quidel, Bio-Rad, Sysmex, Cepheid and Becton Dickinson are among other market leaders.

Kalorama's report is a global report, and the report sees China and Korea as key growth areas.

"China no longer is the double-digit grower of the past, but its market still will grow about twice as fast as the worldwide IVD market and it can't be ignored despite COVID outbreaks, supply issues and tensions, plus there were over 100 companies represented at the 2022 AACC expo interested in selling diagnostic products," says Carlson.

South Korea, India, Eastern Europe and Middle East countries also represent growth areas that Kalorama sizes and forecasts in its report.  

August 31, 2022