Technological Advancements And Emerging Trends
Biochemistry analyzer market is moving toward automation with advancements in speed, precision, and accuracy of newer generation fully automated systems. The analyzer market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.5 percent till 2024. Reagents contribute to 80 percent of the total biochemistry market in India. The scenario of Indian market is similar to that of international, the market is shifting toward fully automated and modular systems. Automated systems have started replacing the semi-automated systems in India. This trend is observed at private labs in Tier-I cities. In Tier-II and Tier-III cities, the labs are still preferring semi-automated systems because of lower work load and cost of the analyzer. In recent past, it was also observed that entry level automation is set as an independent segment within biochemistry. Several Indian companies and companies from China have established their products in this segment. The customer sees visible benefits of automation as replacement of excess skilled manpower and lower consumption of reagents.
The products matching the said benefits and blended with other technological advancements have captured the attention of the customers. The customers have appreciated the specific additional technological benefits such as auto hemolysis of whole-blood sample for HbA1C estimation. Some more features such as automated clot detection and contactless mixing of sample and reagents have made it clear-cut distinct feature of high-end advanced technological analyzers as against the simple entry level automated analyzers. Multi-probe systems are gaining preference over single-probe systems due to speed and cross contamination related issues
Reagents have also seen significant technological advancements. Enzymatic method is getting popularity amongst the laboratory medicine fraternity. Parameters such as glucose hexokinase and enzymatic creatinine are amongst the first few to experience such move. Agappe is one of few companies to bring such advancements in instruments and reagents for customers in India at highly affordable prices.
The increased healthcare awareness has led to increase in preventive health check-ups and higher focus on quality of reporting. More labs and hospitals are moving in to quality accreditations like NABL and CAP. Automation is not restricted to analysis of parameters; fully automated systems for pre-analytics, analytics, and post analytics have made hospitals and labs perform any test with ease and accuracy. With the introduction of automated labelling systems like Mispa Label from Agappe, Indian IVD industry is witnessing an exponential drop in price of pre-analytical automation. Pre-analytics is expected see unprecedented growth in Indian market, as more and more players are entering the arena with innovative and affordable products.
In the last decade, modular systems have gained followers in Indian market. All the A and A+ labs are moving to these systems because of the ease of use and less man-power required to operate the systems. Now, fully automated businesses are moving towards reagent rental and very less high throughput analyzers are bought on outright purchase; this trend had accelerated the automation growth in Indian market. Floor model automated analyzers are also showing positive sales trends; most of the labs with more than 300 tests per day are moving to floor model analyzers. Bench-top modes are also showing positive trends in Tier-II and Tier-III cities which were formerly major markets for semi-automated analyzers.
As software and information technology is evolving day by day, the footprints of these innovations are clearly visible in the IVD industry. Remote monitoring and integration of software have become much more advanced these days. Many of the new generation analyzers come with fully functional remote diagnosis and user-friendly interface. Most of the analyzers come with barcode scanners and LIS/HIS capabilities; these features ensure minimal analytical errors.
Last decade has seen major innovations in the field of biochemistry, with new and innovative products flooding in to the market; we will witness a positive change in the way clinical analysis will be done in the future.
