By Labmedica International staff writers

The market for automated tissue diagnostic products is expected to grow by more than 30% by the year 2017.

The growth in diagnostic test volume combined with an ongoing shortage of pathologists to perform sophisticated analytical tests favors the automation of anatomic pathology laboratories.

While increasing consolidation among laboratories and hospitals will escalate workloads and make a case for automated tissue diagnostic protocols, it will reduce the number of tissue diagnostics customers, forcing equipment manufacturers to compete aggressively for fewer accounts. Furthermore, reimbursement cuts impede the sale of high-end automated equipment in anatomic pathology laboratories. Nonetheless, the tissue diagnostics market, which earned approximately 2.39 billion USD in 2012, was estimated by Frost & Sullivan (Mountain View, CA, USA) to increase by more than 30% and reach 3.45 USD billion by 2017.

"The availability of tissue-based companion diagnostic tests is another important driver, especially for the US and European market," said Divyaa Ravishankar, life sciences industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan. "With companion diagnostic partnerships gathering pace, industry convergence has led to the addition of tissue diagnostics in the in vitro diagnostic portfolio of most of the pharmaceutical companies. Providing attractive procurement strategies can boost the uptake of high-end tools in this constrained environment. For instance, offering competitive monthly payments, tax benefits or incentives, and deferring payments to help overcome budgetary constraints will widen the consumer base of vendors in the global tissue diagnostics market."

The article is excerpted from http://www.labmedica.com