Challenged for Growth, Nucleic Acid Test Vendors Target New Threats to Global Blood Supply
ROCKVILLE, Md., March 1, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The market for nucleic acid tests (NAT) used in blood donation screening is constrained by stagnant or declining transfusion rates in the developed world. As reviewed in The World Market for Molecular Diagnostics, 7th Edition, from market research firm Kalorama Information, blood transfusion rates in the United States declined from an estimated 40 transfusions per 1,000 population in 2011, to 35 per 1,000 in 2014, and 32 per 1,000 in 2016. Demand has fallen as a result of new practices in surgery, blood salvaging, and hospital blood management. Similar reforms in Europe and other developed healthcare systems have alleviated demand for blood transfusion. Achieving business growth in this market environment is challenging even for the largest IVD players. Competitive displacement, in the form of contract wins with blood organizations, is the most prominent strategy for growth, but is reliant upon vendors' responsiveness to new transfusion transmitted infection (TTI) threats.
"China has been the largest market opportunity for the limited number of players in the global NAT blood screening market," said Emil Salazar in a recent blog post. "European, North American and Japanese blood banks and similar organizations are already established contract clients of market leaders Grifols and Roche Diagnostics."
The addition of NAT screening for all donated blood in China was mandated by the national government by 2015, leading to recent tremendous market growth for NATs. Conversion and addition of NAT screening has been completed at Chinese provincial blood centers, but is far from complete among regional and county blood centers and plasma collection centers according to survey results from Kalorama Information's Blood Testing Market in China. Climate change and its effect on disease epidemiology, particularly for mosquito-borne diseases, could also factor into long-term market development for NAT blood screening in the United States.
Market growth from added NAT screens for Zika and other infectious disease threats may ultimately prove marginal in the U.S. market, but lead vendors such as Grifols and Roche moved quickly to introduce Zika NAT assays to their platforms. In the United States, FDA guidelines require the screening of all blood donations for West Nile Virus (WNV) in minipools of 6 or 16. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) reported a fatal WNV TTI in an August 2013 report. The case renewed calls from professionals for individual screening of every blood unit for West Nile, especially in Northern geographies where the disease is most prevalent. In Europe, travelers to areas with ongoing transmission of WNV may be deferred from donating blood for 28 days. However, lost blood supply from individuals turned away from donating blood combined with concerns regarding blood security have motivated European adoption of NAT screening for WNV. Some German blood centers began WNV screening during summer months in 2014 and 2015 and the practice is becoming increasingly routine in the country. Italian authorities have ramped up WNV surveillance and NAT screening following increased seasonal activity of the endemic pathogen.
For market sizes, segmentation and further analysis, Kalorama Information publishes many studies on IVD. They are available at: https://www.kaloramainformation.com/diagnostics-market-c1125/.
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