DALLAS—According to a new report from Research and Markets, the global point-of-care (POC) diagnostics market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.3 percent to 2018. That market estimated to grow at a lower CAGR in developed countries; however, it is expected to witness high growth in emerging countries such as China, India and Brazil. Factors such as rising prevalence of lifestyle and infectious diseases, increasing usage of home-based POC devices, technological advancements and decreasing number of technicians in the central labs are propelling the growth of the POC diagnostics market. However, factors such as lack of alignment with definitive central lab methods, reluctance to change existing treatment practices and the recall of leading glucose monitoring devices are restraining the growth of this market.
In this report, the global POC diagnostics market has been segmented on the basis of category (infectious diseases testing kits, glucose monitoring kits, cardiac markers, pregnancy and fertility testing kits and others) and end users (patient professional monitoring kits and patient self-monitoring kits). The glucose monitoring kits market held the largest share—53.7 percent—of the global POC diagnostics market in 2013, followed by the infectious diseases testing kits market. Factors such as rising global prevalence of diabetes, technological advancements in self-monitoring of blood glucose, and the growing patient awareness toward POC testing are stimulating the growth of the glucose monitoring kits market.
The fastest-growing segment—the cardiac-markers market—is projected to grow at a CAGR of 15.3 percent from 2013 to 2018. This growth is mainly attributed to the increasing number of cardiac patients and the demand of immediate diagnosis of the diseases.
Geographically, North America commanded the largest share of the global POC diagnostics market in 2013, followed by the Asia Pacific region. A number of factors such as increase in waiver of CLIA for certain point of care diagnostic tests, fostering FDA approvals for various immunoassay techniques, easy access to POC tests through diagnostic service providers and presence of major leading companies are driving the growth of the POC diagnostics market in North America.
The Asia-Pacific region is poised to grow at the highest CAGR in the next five years. Factors such as huge patient population base, large number of R&D activities, and growing focus of both international and domestic players on the Asia-Pacific POC diagnostics market are propelling the growth of the dialysis market in the Asia-Pacific region.
