A report by a consulting company has suggested that there will be an uptake in the purchase of mass spectrometry (MS) instruments for clinical diagnostics in the next few years, but costs for hospitals and laboratories are likely to remain high.
The study, called “Opportunities for the European Mass Spectrometry Market in Clinical Applications”, produced by Frost & Sullivan, found that the European market earned revenues of $562m in 2007 with $1,078.8m expected for 2014.
Although research and development costs of manufacturers are keeping product prices high, a number of factors, such as technological advances and a growing range of applications will help maintain demand, according to Frost & Sullivan.
Suraj Ramanathan, research analyst at the company, said:
“The European MS markets will be driven by the ongoing implementation of competitive strategies, including the hybridisation of existing spectrometric techniques (Tandem MS) for accurate throughput results.”
“In the clinical diagnostic sector, areas such as biomarker identification and automated genotyping have exhibited a phenomenal increase in the usage of hybrid MS instruments.”
According to the report, the stabilisation of product prices was a challenge:
“To make adequate returns after incurring expenditure on various external factors such as production, sales and marketing, manufacturers are being forced to increase the price of such analytical instruments,” said Mr Ramanathan.
“In turn, researchers are having to compromise on their funds to obtain quality data coupled with faster throughput results.”
