POC Market

A growing demand in a multi billion $ market

Delivery of healthcare is changing; the demand for rapid diagnostic testing becoming more prevalent. The new global imperative is to speed up the diagnostic process, tailoring it more effectively to individual patients and their circumstances.

Testing at an earlier stage in the disease cycle for chronically sick patients offers clear potential to improve their quality of life by allowing self monitoring of their conditions at home or locally, rather than requiring hospital visits.

In acute situations, where speed of diagnosis is critical, effective POC testing has a crucial role to play. For example, the possibility of running an accurate and precise Troponin I assay in an ambulance on a potential heart attack patient may make a material difference to treatment and clinical outcome.

The factors driving this new approach create an opportunity for rapid diagnostic testing to play a more significant role in the patient care cycle. There is clear demand for rapid, intuitive and easy to use, robust handheld technologies that can safely take the testing environment to patients at the POC for a practical cost. Such platforms must deliver the level of sensitivity required for accurate measurements, from the smallest possible sample, and with the precision and accuracy of hospital laboratory systems.

POC testing accounts for around a third of the US$30 billion plus global in-vitro diagnostic (‘IVD’) testing market. Diagnostic testing accounts for only a low single digit % of healthcare expenditure worldwide, yet influences around two thirds of healthcare decisions.

The POC market is growing rapidly. Growth rates are driven by the wider adoption of POC technologies and new product launches. The self-test market is dominated by blood glucose testing, an increasing incidence of Type II diabetes in developed and emerging markets ensuring further market penetration. This single diagnostic test, expected to grow to around two thirds of the $12 billion POC market, demonstrates vividly the potential for growth of effective POC technologies.

Improved accuracy and tests for a wider number of conditions will continue to see the self-test market develop rapidly. A key opportunity is for improved POC product penetration in primary and secondary care settings; H1N1 and HIV POC testing are obvious targets but the applications are myriad.

Effective and reliable POC technologies at the right price, such as those developed and in development by Bio-AMD can meet this need; improving care, saving costs and positively affecting clinical outcomes.