The Global Market for Biophotonics is Projected to Reach US$70 Billion by 2020

Expanding Applications Beyond Healthcare Promises Growth Opportunities for Biophotonics, According to a Report Update by Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

GIA announces the release of a comprehensive report update on the Biophotonics market. The global market for Biophotonics is projected to reach US$70 billion by 2020, driven by steadily expanding applications beyond healthcare and into life sciences, food diagnostics and agriculture among others.

GIA has released a report update on the global Biophotonics market. Biophotonics refers to the science that harnesses the power of light (photons) and other forms of radiant energy for the purpose of investigating the functional, structural, biological, mechanical and chemical properties of biological materials and systems. Biophotonics which presently makes possible enhanced diagnosis for various health conditions would in the near future expand beyond diagnostics and increasingly cater to the varied demands of multiple verticals such as agriculture, food diagnostics, biotechnology and therapeutics among others. The rapidly expanding application base for biophotonics-based products in these areas would be one of the major growth propelling factors for the market. Over the years, biophotonics-based products have become rugged and cost effective so as to make an effective transition from the niche healthcare and life sciences applications to the more promising environment control and monitoring, and agriculture and food applications. Emerging opportunities in sensing and imaging modalities have positioned biophotonics as an acceptable technology in such markets where their bulk usage became a reality.

However, despite expanding applications beyond the medical sector, the two very important applications of biophotonics, will for a long time be, in vitro diagnostics and medical imaging. Biophotonics’ ability to meet some of the critical healthcare needs of the aging population by addressing some very significant issues will remain as a major growth driver for the market. Other important growth inducing factors include R&D induced expansion in applications and increasing government support for innovative cost saving medical technologies. By enabling the measurement of minute amounts of substances, biophotonics is expected to leverage opportunities in the rapidly growing point-of-care diagnostics market in the coming years. Of all the applications of biophotonics, biosensors showcase immense promise. Light therapy and microscopy applications are also among the rapidly growing end-use markets.

Biophotonics-based technologies are fast replacing some of the well-established diagnostic techniques not just in the medical sector but also in the non-medical sector. Biophotonics based techniques such as autofluorescence-based observation, vibrational spectroscopy, light-scatter analysis and MALDI-TOF (matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight) are likely to replace conventional biological recognition elements such as nuclei acids, antibodies and enzymes in future. Usage of photonics in these areas will lead to a major shift away from the chemistry aspect, comprising surface reagents and other consumables, to the software aspect that includes deployment of algorithms for chemometry. Such a shift is expected to attract several IT leaders and electronic manufacturing companies into the field.

Newer markets for biophotonics in future will emerge from such applications, which have the potential to effectively leverage the intrinsic benefits of biophotonics technologies. For instance, handheld microfluids and optical in-line monitoring are expected to dominate food testing and also agricultural applications in future. However, the potential for such emerging applications is always a risk to predict especially in terms of their growth, mainly because of the well-established incumbent technologies in use in these applications

As stated by the new market research report on Biophotonics, the United States represents the largest market worldwide. Growth in the country is fostered by the rising incidence of different types of cancers and rapid commercialization of newer optics-based technologies for diagnosis and treatment in the field of oncology. Asia-Pacific ranks as the fastest growing market with a CAGR of 15.7% over the analysis period. Rising healthcare expenditure, aging population and the need for faster, early and accurate diagnostic capabilities are expected to bolster demand in the region.

Major players covered in the report include AdvanDx Inc., Affymetrix Inc., Becton, Dickinson and Company, BioTek Instruments Inc., Carl Zeiss MicroImaging GmbH, CEA-Leti, Epi-Light Limited, FEI Company, Glenbrook Technologies Inc., Hamamatsu Photonics K.K., HORIBA Ltd., Lumenis Ltd., Newport Corporation, Ocean Optics Inc., Olympus America Inc., PerkinElmer Inc., Photocure ASA, PicoQuant GmbH, Solta Medical Inc., Zecotek Photonics Inc., and Zenalux Biomedical Inc., among others.

The research report titled “Biophotonics: A Global Strategic Business Report” announced by Global Industry Analysts Inc., provides a comprehensive review of market trends, issues, drivers, mergers, acquisitions and other strategic industry activities of global companies.  The report provides market estimates and projections in US$ Million for all major geographic markets such as the US, Canada, Japan, Europe (France, Germany, Italy, UK, Spain, Russia, and Rest of Europe), Asia-Pacific (China, India, and Rest of Asia-Pacific), Latin America (Brazil and Rest of Latin America), and Rest of World. End-use sectors analyzed include Medical (Therapeutics, Diagnostics and Others), and Non-Medical.