On 22st May 2014
The market for cell-based assays is driven by the preference over biochemical assays and animal models and the emergent 3D cell-based assay techniques in cell-based assays.
There has been a substantial rise in the costs to develop a new drug in recent years. This is specially observed when a new compound enters animal testing. The use of animals in experimentation is becoming dearer, due to limitations such as high costs involved in breeding and acquisition of animals, due to the complexity of procedures involved in the in vivo testing, and several other ethical issues and legal issues associated with it. Moreover the traditional biochemical assays also posses many limitations. To counteract these issues there has been a paradigm shift towards the use of cell-based assays.
The consumables formed the largest product segment of the total cell-based assays market in 2013, which includes assay kits and reagents, microplates and cell lines. The largest contribution of consumables was attributed to the large volume market of reagents and assay kits; where most of the innovation is taking place. Drug discovery was the most prominent application of cell-based assays. Within drug discovery, lead identification and optimization accounted for the largest share in 2013. With respect to end users, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies commanded the largest share in 2013. These industries are focusing on screening extensive libraries of compounds that could become leads for potential drug candidates. The screening process has helped the pharmaceutical companies to run more cost and time efficient methods.
For accurate results, the low cost label-free technology in cell based assays has emerged as a