Nucleic Acid Testing Market to Soar in Next Decade

The worldwide market for nucleic acid tests (NATs) in 2000 was more than US$1.5 billion, a figure that is expected to soar to more than $16 billion by 2010, according to a report published by Front Line Strategic Management Consulting, Inc. (Foster City, CA, USA; www.frontlinesmc.com), called Nucleic Acid Testing, A Strategic Business Analysis.

NATs, which directly target DNA or RNA and were initially used mainly for diagnosing infectious diseases, have advanced into other fields with the introduction of new technologies such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH). Two fields that are switching from their traditional methods to those that use NATs include identity (mostly paternity and biologic forensics) and prenatal testing. Bottlenecks to NAT growth include health insurers and, surprisingly, some pharmaceutical companies who fear that sales of their blockbluster products may suffer if and when personalized medicine becomes common.

As research unveils new genes associated with cardiovascular disease or cancer, new NATs are being developed to test for these predisposition genes. NATs are also being used to diagnose other diseases and predict responses to therapies. The market segments that will benefit today from NATs are the cardiovascular and oncology segments. The cardiovascular segment will benefit the most because cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death and because more research is done in this area than in any other segment. In fact, the 2001-2010 compounded growth rate of this market segment is estimated at 92%, while the growth rate of the oncology market is estimated at 37%.




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