Microfluidic tech enables point of need testing applications

This report is focused on tests to be performed at the point of need, already commercialised or in development and based on microfluidic technologies. In this report, Yole’s analysts explain how and why microfluidics is increasingly used by diagnostics and life sciences companies.

Yole’s report provides a complete update of market data and drivers, technical and economic requirements and prospects of microfluidic technologies for PoN diagnostics in all applications.

PoC testing is not a new approach: indeed first applications arose in the 1990s. Since then, microfluidic technologies have been increasingly used to solve technical problems and bring economic benefits to the healthcare industry. In the past few years, other applications have benefited from recent technological improvements: veterinary testing, environmental testing, agro-food and industrial testing.

“Decentralised testing brings significant operational benefit to various players across these applications”, explains Sébastien Clerc, Technology & Market Analyst at Yole. And he adds: “It is truly revolutionising diagnostics, and we are currently attending an explosion in the number of products on the market.”

However, with many applications but few solutions existing today, these markets have not yet reached their full potential. According to Yole’s analysts, the human healthcare market still looks much more attractive to technology developers.

However, in a near future, the greatest opportunities will be in all the other markets. Yole has identified an increasing investors’ confidence in microfluidics and its potential to revolutionised IVD testing.

Lot of companies raise several hundreds of millions of dollars to support the development of microfluidic solutions for decentralised testing. According to Yole’s analysts, such investments reach about US$ 600 million since 2014.

Under this new PoN report, Yole’s experts also explore the barriers that still need to be taken down for decentralised/PoN testing to flourish. “Microfluidics-based point-of-need testing will grow from a US$2.6 billion market in 2015 to US$10.3 billion in 2021, which is a 26% CAGR ”, asserts Dr Benjamin Roussel, Activity Leader at Yole.

This value represents more than 500 million tests in 2021, of which 61 million will be outside human diagnostics. In the report, Yole’s analysts detail the evolution of each application in terms of microfluidic technology’s use.