European Diabetes Diagnostics Market

Spurred by new techniques that are making diabetes monitoring easier, the European market for diabetes diagnostics is forecast to grow from the current U.S.$265 million to $362 million by 2011, according to a new report from Frost & Sullivan (Palo Alto, CA, USA), a global consulting company.

At least one-third of diabetics are ignorant of their condition. For instance, up to a million of Europe's population with type 2 diabetes remain undiagnosed, creating an urgent need to improve public awareness of diabetes and to encourage regular monitoring. Furthermore, there is a need for improvement in physician and healthcare professional awareness and education in order to understand the complete benefits of laboratory-based testing and frequency.

As part of a public awareness campaign, patients need to be educated about the availability of novel tests and therapies. Innovative techniques are making diabetes monitoring much easier, and cutting-edge glucose meters that are compact and easy to handle are replacing imprecise traditional urine-based tests. These trends toward smaller size and ease of use represent attempts by manufacturers to improve patient accuracy, with components that require less time and blood to measure glucose.

Point-of-care (POC) testing, with its ability to provide rapid and simple results, offers an easy approach to regular monitoring of the disease and is already the largest market in Europe for diabetes diagnostics. While the levels of POC and laboratory testing will remain steady over the next several years, the use of glycated hemoglobin testing is expected to rise slightly as general practitioner surgeries, outpatient clinics, and small hospital-based laboratories adopt the technology more readily.

Nevertheless, the overall progress made in the diabetes diagnostics arena needs to be strengthened through continual efforts to achieve more patient-friendly screening and treatment, with emphasis on better education and training.




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