Kalorama Information (New York, NY, USA) has estimated that the budding market for digital PCR (dPCR) reached USD 175 million in 2014 and anticipated growth to provide products for research and diagnostics in diseases like cancer and neurological disorders.

Findings from Kalorama’s dPCR market analysis are provided in its report “qPCR and dPCR Markets,” covering instruments, reagents, software, and services. The report breaks out the market for clinical (in vitro diagnostics) and research applications sectors.

dPCR uses molecular counting to deliver an absolute measure of target nucleic acid molecules, rather than the relative measure obtained from qPCR. It works by partitioning the sample, into chambers (cdPCR) or droplets (ddPCR), to retain only a small number of DNA molecules of interest.

“dPCR is growing in popularity in labs because it is precise,” said Bruce Carlson, publisher of Kalorama Information, “It directly counts the number of individual target molecules in a sample and does not use approximation through standard curves.” Targets are counted as 1, non-targets are counted as 0. Because of its precision, dPCR is capable of analyzing complex mixtures and of performing procedures where only small sample amounts are available.

Kalorama’s report said that among developed nations, the US and Europe represent approximately 70% the dPCR market, which is anticipated to grow at a steady pace, whereas the qPCR segment is mature. “Companies will be looking to provide products to increase research and diagnostics in diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease,” said Mr. Carlson.

The competitive landscape for qPCR and dPCR markets is diverse, including large life sciences companies, large pharmaceutical company divisions, and many smaller niche players. According to the report, leading players in this arena are currently Life Technologies (Thermo Fisher Scientific), Bio-Rad, Qiagen, Roche and Agilent, Fluidigm and RainDance Technologies.