Biobanks Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product (LIMS, Biobanking Equipment), By Biospecimen Type (Organs, Stem Cells), By Biobank Type (Real, Virtual), By Service, By Application, And Segment Forecasts, 2023 - 2030

Report Overview 

The global biobanks market size was valued at USD 71.4 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.6% from 2023 to 2030. High investments in the R&D of advanced therapies, such as regenerative medicine, personalized medicine, and cancer genomic studies, are driving the space. Moreover, the onset of COVID-19 has put biobanks at the forefront of the pandemic control measures, resulting in the organic revenue growth of the market. The COVID-19 outbreak had a major influence on the biobanking industry. Biobanking is important for the diagnosis & production of medicines for a variety of disorders. International initiatives to produce vaccines and other medicines to prevent the spread of the virus have been urgently needed.

The collection, processing, and analysis of patient samples are at the frontline of this crisis. For example, the Health Minister announced EUR 2 million in financing for the National Irish COVID-19 Biobank (NICB) in a July 2021 update from the Government of Ireland. The NICB has become a critical part of Ireland’s COVID-19 pandemic response. According to a February 2021 release, the Sample Collection Database was designed by the SciLifeLab Data Centre in partnership with Biobank Sweden and the research area ‘Biobanks for COVID-19’ of the SciLifeLab & KAW National COVID-19 research program.

Furthermore, Tulane University announced a new COVID-19 biobank containing blood & cell samples from survivors in July 2021 to aid researchers in determining why some people heal rapidly while others have long-term effects. As a result, such activities show that the outbreak of the pandemic boosted the demand for biobank services, benefiting the global economy. The increasing popularity of precision/personalized medicine and genetic testing has been a key driver of the market. Biobanks have been playing a significant role in biomedical research. Over the past few decades, there have been several advances in platforms and tools used in genetic studies.

This has led to an increase in demand for biospecimens from clinical labs to develop assays for genetic testing. Collaborations between private and public institutions in biobanking have played a crucial role in market progression. Digitalization, precision medicine, and virtualization are rapidly changing the biobanking industry through the development of novel methods and concepts of synergies initiated by public and private organizations. Companies across all fields are partnering with biobanks, which accelerates market revenue. For instance, Illumina partnered with four institutions - the University of Colorado at Denver, Vanderbilt University, Montreal Heart Institute University, and Partners HealthCare - to genotype their bio-samples for R&D activities.

Moreover, despite the supply chain hindrance by the global pandemic, the market witnessed lucrative growth in 2020. Biobanking has emerged as a key focal point for public health agencies and healthcare providers engaged in curbing the COVID-19 pandemic. BioIVT, a provider of research strategies and services for pharmacological and diagnostic development, purchased Tissue Solutions Ltd., a virtual biobank in the United Kingdom, in July 2021. Tissue Solutions provides medical researchers with high-quality tissue and also other biological resources for drug development, identification & validation, assay creation & validation, biomarker & companion diagnostic research, and more.

This acquisition could make human tissue biobanking services more accessible across the country, allowing the segment to develop in the future. An exponential increase in the number of global cases has rendered the significance of biobanks in containing the spread of the virus. High-quality COVID-19 specimens are required and helpful for both research and diagnostic purposes, and biobanks are considered vital repositories for these samples. Thus, biobanks are gaining ground to support clinical research and drug discovery processes to combat this global disaster.

Product Insights

On the basis of products, the global market has been further sub-segmented into biobanking equipment, biobanking consumables, and laboratory information management systems (LIMS). The biobanking equipment segment dominated the market and accounted for the largest revenue share of 77.1% in 2022 owing to a rapid increase in the number of new biobanks and the high cost of initial equipment installation. A wide range of equipment is offered to cater to different biobanking processes, such as sample preparation, collection, processing, storage, and shipment.

The equipment includes cell separators, freezers, thawing equipment, barcode readers, and alarm and monitoring systems. The laboratory information management systems (LIMS) segment is anticipated to emerge as a lucrative source of revenue during the forecast period. This is because LIMS plays an important role in COVID-19 biobanking, testing, and research. In April 2020, LabVantage Solutions, Inc. developed a new COVID-19 LIMS solution. In addition, CloudLIMS is offering its cloud LIMS free of charge to biobanks, research facilities, and laboratories undertaking COVID-19 research or testing across the globe.

Service Insights

On the basis of services, the global market has been further sub-segmented into biobanking & repository, lab processing, qualification/validation, cold chain logistics, and other services. The biobanking and repository services segment dominated the market and accounted for the largest share of more than 32.3% of the global revenue in 2022. This is owing to the higher market penetration of these services and the increased need for the preservation of biosamples for developing precision medicine and disease-specific research. The expansion of biobanking services from academic research to include clinical enterprises and government initiatives, as well as highly-networked and open-ended ventures, has supported the segment.

The lab processing segment is also expected to witness significant growth in the near future and is estimated to account for the second-largest revenue share by 2030. This growth can be attributed to the increasing demand for clinical trials and research-related workflows around COVID-19. Many research institutes and companies are engaged in the development of vaccines and research studies for the novel coronavirus. This, in turn, is expected to increase the demand for lab processing services, such as DNA extraction, plasma/serum isolation, sample retrieval, and sample plating, thereby supporting segment growth.

Biospecimen Type Insights

On the basis of biospecimen types, the global market has been categorized into human tissues, organs, stem cells, and other biospecimens. The human tissues segment dominated the market and accounted for the largest revenue share of 36.5% in 2022. This is owing to a large number of biobanks with facilities to store tissues, easy availability of tissue samples, and availability of advanced technology for storage and retrieval of banked tissues. Growing investment in disease-specific R&D is anticipated to foster the demand for diseased tissue samples, such as lymphoma, myeloma, ovarian leukemia, brain, prostate, colorectal carcinoma breast, and lung tissues for oncology studies.

In the effort to advance the research on COVID-19 and improve its diagnosis and treatment, the human tissue segment is expected to witness high demand in near future. Technological advancements, such as the use of 3D printing for tissue samples/3D-printed mini-organs creation in COVID-19 testing are expected to boost segment growth. The number of established stem cell biobanks has been increasing rapidly worldwide. Promising applications of stem cells in regenerative medicine, cell therapy, developmental biology, toxicology, and drug development can be attributed to the rapid increase in the number of stem cell banks, resulting in the lucrative revenue growth of this segment.

Biobanks Type Insights

On the basis of biobank types, the global market has been further bifurcated into physical/real biobanks and virtual biobanks. The physical/real biobanks segment dominated the market in 2022 and accounted for the largest revenue share of 76.6%. These biobanks have a well-established network, thereby holding a high revenue share. Rapid progress in the fields of bioinformatics analysis and precision medicine can be attributed to this change in the operating strategy of the biobanks. A large collection of tissue samples from pathological labs, clinical trials, and research projects over the years contributes to the largest share of tissue banks in 2022.

However, in recent years, virtual biobanks have emerged to address the problems related to the accessibility of biospecimens. Tissue Solutions (Scotland) and Human Focused Testing (Little port) are examples of organizations whose core operating activities involve procurement and distribution of samples as per requirement. The potential to fulfill the need for biospecimens and the ability to trace and obtain rare samples improves with virtual biobanking. Also, easy accessibility associated with virtual biobanks contributes to the lucrative growth of the segment.

Application Insights

On the basis of applications, the market has been further categorized into therapeutics, drug discovery & clinical research, clinical diagnostics, and other applications. In 2022, the therapeutics application segment dominated the market with a revenue share of 34.1%. This can be attributed to the ever-increasing demand for advanced therapies for the treatment of chronic diseases. Furthermore, the exponential increase in the number of COVID-19 cases across the globe has resulted in an increasing need for the development of novel viral therapeutics. Various studies are being conducted to accelerate research in this field.

For instance, Mayo Clinic has initiated an observational study for prospectively collecting research biospecimens and clinical data from COVID-19 patients, to enable high-quality research, thereby driving the segment growth. On the other hand, the clinical diagnostics segment is anticipated to witness the fastest growth over the forecast period. Comparison of biospecimens obtained from healthy and diseased individuals advances the clinical diagnosis process, especially for cancer. It helps investigate the treatment response of the patient and identify a new tumor in a patient with a history of cancer. 

Regional Insights

On the basis of geographies, the market has been further segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and Latin America. Europe accounted for the maximum revenue share of more than 38.4 % in 2022 owing to the continuous investment in the collection, establishment, and processing of large-scale datasets. For instance, in March 2019, the U.K. biobank generated exome sequence data from 50,000 people with the objective to advance disease management including prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. That project aims to collect data on about 500,000 people and follow their health.

In March 2020, the Columbia University and New York-Presbyterian Hospital established a COVID-19 biobank for researchers to accelerate their studies. Furthermore, in April 2020, Biogen, Inc., in collaboration with Partners HealthCare and Broad Institute of MIT, announced the association for building a COVID-19 biobank. In April 2020, Québec COVID-19 Biobank began operating in Canada. This biobank was launched by Genome Québec and the Fonds de recherche du Québec. Such developments are expected to drive the revenue flow in this region.

Key Companies & Market Share Insights

With the increasing availability of biospecimens, market participants are expanding their offerings to keep pace with the rising demand for bio-storage solutions. For instance, in February 2020, Hamilton Storage launched new sample storage tubes along with RackWare racks at SLAS 2020 International Conference and Exhibition. Furthermore, the market players are engaged in strategic alliances with research communities and healthcare organizations to effectively serve the biobanking demand for the storage and processing of biosamples. Some of the prominent players in the biobanks market include:

• Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.

• Merck KGaA

• QIAGEN

• Hamilton Company

• Avantor

• Tecan Trading AG.

• Danaher Corporation

• Becton, Dickinson, and Company (BD)

• BioCision

• Taylor-Wharton

• Charles River Laboratories

• Lonza

• STEMCELL Technologies Inc.

• Biovault Family

• PromoCell GmbH

• Precision Cellular Storage Ltd. (Virgin Health Bank)

Recent Developments

• In July 2023, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. introduced two latest reproductive health assays, the Ion AmpliSeq Poluploidy Kit and the Ion ReproSeq PGT-A kit, for accelerating fertility research. These assays are biobanks that are designed to conduct aneuploidy analysis for genetic testing

• In June 2022, STEMCELL Technologies Inc. partnered with PBS Biotech for enabling robust upliftment of human pluripotent stem cell 3D cultures which are used in research laboratories, and biobanks

Biobanks Market Report Scope

Global Biobanks Market Segmentation

This report forecasts revenue growth at global, regional, and country levels and provides an analysis of the latest industry trends in each of the sub-segments from 2018 to 2030. For this study, Grand View Research has segmented the global biobanks market report on the basis of product, service, biospecimen type, biobanks type, application, and region:

• Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2018 - 2030)

  • Biobanking Equipment

    • Temperature Control Systems

      • Freezers & Refrigerators

      • Cryogenic Storage Systems

      • Thawing Equipment

    • Incubators & Centrifuges

    • Alarms & Monitoring Systems

    • Accessories & Other Equipment

  • Biobanking Consumables

  • Laboratory Information Management Systems

• Service Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2018 - 2030)

  • Biobanking & Repository

  • Lab Processing

  • Qualification/ Validation

  • Cold Chain Logistics

  • Other Services

• Biospecimen Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2018 - 2030)

  • Human Tissues

  • Human Organs

  • Stem Cells

    • Adult Stem Cells

    • Embryonic Stem Cells

    • IPS Cells

    • Other Stem Cells

  • Other Biospecimens

• Biobanks Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2018 - 2030)

  • Physical/Real Biobanks

    • Tissue Biobanks

    • Population Based Biobanks

    • Genetic (DNA/RNA)

    • Disease Based Biobanks

  • Virtual Biobanks

• Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2018 - 2030)

  • Therapeutics

  • Drug Discovery & Clinical Research

  • Clinical Diagnostics

  • Other Applications

• Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2018 - 2030)

  • North America

    • U.S.

    • Canada

  • Europe

    • UK

    • Germany

    • France

    • Italy

    • Spain

    • Denmark

    • Sweden

    • Norway

    • Switzerland

  • Asia Pacific

    • Japan

    • China

    • India

    • Australia

    • Thailand

    • South Korea

    • Singapore

  • Latin America

    • Brazil

    • Mexico

    • Argentina

  • Middle East & Africa

    • South Africa

    • Saudi Arabia

    • UAE

    • Kuwait