Kalorama Information (New York City, NY, USA) has now published the 9th edition of its biennial market research report “Worldwide Market for In Vitro Diagnostics,” revealing estimates from its survey of the in vitro diagnostics (IVD) industry – presenting the trends, technologies, customer needs, and major suppliers with an eye on how they are shaping the IVD industry.

Growth in the USD 54.6 billion sector in 2013 came from emerging markets while developed nation markets grew slowly, according to the Kalorama Information report – China, Brazil, and Korea were among the countries that received industry attention in the form of acquisitions, partnerships, and expanded sales efforts. “All of the major IVD companies reported large increases in the top 7 emerging markets,” said Shara Rosen, RT, MBA, “This is fuelled by privatization and health insurance initiatives by governments and employers. Medicare price cutting in the US expected to continue and an essentially flat IVD market in Europe expected for the next few years.”

China was the target for most efforts, and most major IVD companies reported at least 25% increase in their sales in China. In 2012, Abaxis licensed Abbott Point of Care exclusive rights to distribute and sell its Piccolo Xpress clinical chemistry system and product line of single-use reagent discs in China, and Qiagen inked a distribution deal with KingMed Diagnostics, China, for its HPV test.

In Brazil, Roche and Qiagen were among the large companies reporting expanded sales. OPKO Diagnostics bought Sao Paulo-based distributor Silicon Comercio. In November 2012, Trovagene announced that it would collaborate with the PIO XII Foundation in Brazil to evaluate the performance of the firm's urine-based molecular assay for HPV types associated with cervical lesions, in order to test the viability of their test for replacing pap smears in the Brazilian healthcare system.

While Brazil and China have long been noticed, Korea was an increasing focus area in the past 2 years. Life Technologies, part of Thermo Fisher, expanded with South Korean instrument distributor Life Science Korea. Agilent began a partnership with a Korean university. Seegene and NanoBioSys are among the Korean firms that launched products.

The report projects that these types of development will continue. Emerging IVD markets will still experience market growth two to three times global IVD market average. But the report also makes clear that the dollars are still in developed systems, and their slow growth will tame growth forecasts in the industry.