Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
provides examples of investment/financing in biosensor companies. It is the intention of this
chapter to provide some perspective on the biosensor market, at least to the novice reader.
Finally, the author admits that most of his life has been spent in the academic area, apart from
a 5 year stint at a National Chemical Laboratory in India, and about a year at different labor-
atories here in the United States. Besides some minor consulting in the biosensor and catalyst
deactivation area most of the working life of the author has been spent at a university. Nev-
ertheless, this author recognizes the importance of economics, especially in the biotechnol-
ogy area; a similar chapter on the economics of bioseparations has been written by this
same author. Finally, one may consider this chapter as an initial and iterative solution to a
nonlinear problem. This chapter can be taken as a starter to keep improving the solution using
some effective algorithm or logical reasoning to arrive at the optimum solution. The question
may eventually be, “should we invest in a biosensor industry?”
17.2 Market Reports and Trends
A recent report has analyzed the biosensor market in medical diagnostics between the years
2000-2015 (
Global Strategic Biosensor Report, 2009
). The report examines the biosensor
market for medical diagnostics, medical biosensors, glucose, and other medical biosensors,
environmental biosensors, and other biosensors. There has been a considerable increase in
medical applications, besides the original glucose market owing to the relative ease of
applications of biosensors. The report was careful to analyze each area geographically such
as the United States, Canada, Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, Japan, and the rest of the
world. The report also analyzed the major companies throughout the world that were major
players in the biosensor market.
Newsguide US (2009)
recently pointed out that the market for biosensors will reach $6.1 billion
by the year 2012 on the basis of a new report by Global Industry Analysts, Inc. According to
this report this will happen because of the increasing opportunities for use of biosensors in
industrial, environmental, and especially medical diagnostic applications. Factors that will
lead to this growth are a growing population, rising incidence of chronic diseases (such as
diabetes), and the growing need for environmental monitoring.
The advent of microfabrication technology has led to the miniaturization of biosensors.
Nanosize electronic components under development will be incorporated in future commer-
cial biosensors. The authors point out the slow pace of commercialization of biosensors
because of the high cost and the availability of effective alternative technologies. Also, issues
such as stability, sensitivity, and quality assurance have still to be worked out for complete
satisfaction. The authors add that medical applications of biosensors is still an attractive prop-
osition, and many players are putting in significant resources to develop this, as yet largely
untapped, market section. According to this report, the United States and Europe are still
the major players in the world capturing approximately 69.7% of the world's share in the
