Any grad student who has ever set foot in a research laboratory will tell you the ‘eureka!’ moments that seem to be a daily occurrence in movies are, in reality, a very (very very) small percent of what goes on in a lab. The day-to-day of lab work is actually painstaking and repetitive.
For grad students in universities the world over, this is just part of the deal. But in big, shiny (well-funded) research, drug discovery and diagnosis labs, standardizing these repetitive processes is not only essential to guaranteeing solid results, it is also instrumental in ensuring a good quality final product.
Enter laboratory automation. This is a pretty generic term referring to the use of technology and equipment to conduct all those routine activities, and create state-of-the-art workflows in research and diagnostics. Automation enables robust and faster throughput as well as analysis of a large number of samples.
The Global Laboratory Automation Systems Market is split, 60/40 between applications in clinical testing and drug discovery, and consistent advancements in both these areas are encouraging market growth at a modest CAGR of 5.32 percent from 2013-2018.
Automation for Higher Sample Accuracy
One main driver behind market growth is the need for large labs to maintain accuracy in their samples. While manual handling of samples can often result in variation in data analysis, automated laboratory systems analyze samples with a high degree of reproducibility and accuracy while loading samples for measurement.
This kind of reproducibility is something that every research scientist and lab tech aims for. However, automation is really not a reality for many small and medium sized research facilities. Lab automation systems don’t come cheap, and even though it only represents a one-time investment, it’s far outside of the budgets of many small labs (sorry, grad students).
New Diagnostic Techniques and Automation Tools are Good News for Market Growth
But while this might be frustrating for some researchers, it’s not enough to actually damage market growth. Key developments in the area of in-vitro diagnostic techniques have enabled the design and development of new automated systems for analyzing samples.
And vendors in the market are consistently launching new products to fill this need. For example, in 2014, Tecan launched the TouchTools PCR Wizard, an easy-to-use Freedom EVOware add-on offering straightforward automation of PCR reaction set-up on Freedom EVO platforms. Another example of bench-top automated systems is Sysmex CA-620 and CA-660 hemostasis analyzers launched in June 2012 by Siemens Healthcare. The CA-620 enables basic clotting tests, while the CA-660 is a more capable analyzer that performs chromogenic and immunoassay testing.
The development of these new automation systems is expected to drive the Global Laboratory Automation Systems market during the forecast period.
