In a recent study published by the British Medical Journal, researchers used a type of high performance liquid chromatography to screen over 200 hypertensive patients for 40 different antihypertensive medications or their metabolites.
The research team discovered that about 90 percent of patients were not adhering to their antihypertensive treatments. What’s more is that by not taking their medications properly, patients are more likely to end up in hospital with complications.
By using high performance liquid chromatography, doctors can now test a patient’s urine to see what medications are in their system. This will help identify whether the problem is with the medication therapy or with the patient, thereby improving diagnosis and treatment.
What is High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)?
HPLC is a chromatographic technique that allows the separation of molecules with high resolving power and remains the most popular chromatographic technique. The HPLC technique relies on high operational pressure of over 50-30 bars separated by sorbent particle sizes roughly equal to 2-50 micrometers.
In recent years, HPLC has had a large impact in the Healthcare Industry which is a huge reason why the Global Liquid Chromatography Systems Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.55 percent for the 2013-2018 period.
TechNavio analysts have identified three trends in the Healthcare Industry that are expected to have a positive impact on the Liquid Chromatography market during the forecast period:
Growing Demand for Biopharmaceuticals
The aging population in the US is expected to double and reach a total of 71 million by 2030. Cardiovascular diseases, Alzheimer’s disease, and cancer are some of the most common diseases associated with aging. Therefore, the higher prevalence of these diseases in the aging population is increasing the demand for biopharmaceuticals among aged patients. Most of these biopharmaceuticals are biologics and require high purity standards for use as therapeutic agents. This necessitates the use of chromatographic systems with rapid purification features. This demand has led to the high adoption rate of automated chromatographic systems, resulting in the growth of the Global Liquid Chromatography Systems market.
Increase in Pharmaceutical and Biological Research
The increase in the development of new biological therapeutic entities for addressing various complications and illnesses, has paved the way for the rapid growth in pharmaceutical and biological research. Understanding the effect of these biologics and drugs requires animal testing and human testing. Many research institutions require fast purification systems for conducting research. Liquid chromatography systems allow robust, fast, and reliable solutions for the purification of biological and chemical entities that mandates their use in such research.
Increasing Healthcare Spending in Emerging Economies
The governments of emerging economies and large pharmaceutical companies have made huge investments to improve the accessibility of quality healthcare services. This is expected to be driven primarily by the increase in disposable income among the population, macroeconomic expansion, and increased access to medicines supported by government policies and programs, especially in the developing regions of the world. In 2012, pharmaceutical spending in the developing regions was US$216.53 billion. This accounts for around 20 percent of the overall pharmaceutical spending that year.
