Biobanks Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product (LIMS), By Service (Cold Chain), By Biospecimen Type, By Biobank Type (Virtual), By Application, And Segment Forecasts, 2018 - 2025

Report Overview

The global biobanks market size was estimated at USD 52.31 billion in 2017 and is projected to exhibit a CAGR of 4.5% over the forecast period. Use of biospecimens in clinical research has improved the potential success rate of different clinical trials being carried out for various disease regimens. Rising demand for disease-specific biosamples, especially tumor cells to accelerate precision medicine research, is expected to drive the market over the forecast period.

Usage of human biospecimens is also increasing in cohort studies. Number of registered clinical studies with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) increased from 181,305 in 2014 to 262,445 in 2017. A substantial number of large ongoing cohort studies related to precision medicine have fomented the establishment of population-based banks. Hence, increasing focus on development of novel therapies, such as personalized medicine, is anticipated to drive the market.

The market has evolved rapidly with technological advancements in genetic tools, as these tools raise demand for high - quality biospecimens to accelerate cancer research. For instance, in January 2017, Northwell Health collaborated with Indivumed to create a cancer research biobank. Furthermore, ongoing developments in information technology and automation solutions have improved the operating efficiency of biobanking services. For example, launch of fully automated programmed freezers and refrigerators supports temperature monitoring in biobanks.

Moreover, technological advancements in biotechnology workflows have expanded the application scope of biosamples. For example, in March 2017, UK biobank entered into a collaboration with GSK and Regeneron Genetics Center. Under this partnership, Regeneron sequenced all the 500,000 samples stored with the UK biobank, which were further used for clinical research. Following the exclusivity period for these pharma companies, the sequencing data will be incorporated with UK biobank to make it openly available.

Introduction of notable changes in biobanking operations in order to ensure optimization of sample storage and maintenance is one of the key factors driving this market. The changes include sample delivery and deposit in a temperature-controlled hatch, automated tracking of sample handling, and LIMS - based interfacing for provision of audit trails on sample history. Increase in the standardization of biobanking processes, rise in funding, and availability of centralized collections are some other major changes in biobanking operations that are anticipated to positively influence revenue growth.

Product Insights

A wide range of equipment are available for biobanking processes such as sample collection, preparation, analysis, storage, and transport. Equipment includes freezers, cell separators, barcode readers, thawing equipment, and alarm and monitoring systems. Implementation of automation in biobanking workflows has created the need for information management systems in order to maintain registries of biosamples.

Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) are implemented across various biobank workflows, including patient consent, sample collection, sample accession, storage, and distribution. However, their usage in the aforementioned workflows can only be achieved for new samples. For old samples, their usage is limited to data storage. Data integrity and system usability are major concerns that need to be checked prior to implementation of LIMS.

In 2017, a Biobank Economic Modeling Tool (BEMT), a tool offered by the Biorepository and Biospecimen Research Branch (BBRB) of the National Cancer Institute, was used for conducting a survey, according to which, consumables accounted for about 15.0% of their total operating expenditure for biobanks. High cost of reagents and consumables for integrated use with equipment based on advanced technology, such as automated sample processing, are anticipated to drive demand for biobanking consumables.

Services Insights

Biobanking and biorepository services include services for storing, management, distribution, cryogenic preservation, and information handling. Biobanks are established and operated in compliance with regulatory standards to provide resources for in-depth study of diseases and aging-related mechanisms. High adoption of these services over the years and a large number of samples stored have enabled this segment to account for a large market share.

Increase in the outsourcing of clinical trials and research - related workflows is anticipated to bolster demand for lab processing services. Lab processing services include DNA extraction and dilution from biosamples, plasma/serum isolation, sample plating, and sample retrieval.

In the process of sample transportation, compliance with local and federal regulations and adherence to standard operating procedures remains a crucial task. Stable temperature maintenance is a challenge when specimens are used as active bio - pharmacological ingredients for development of therapies.

Application Insights

Use of biosamples in therapeutics accounted for the largest revenue share in the biobanks market in 2017 owing to higher use of tissues and cells in transplantation and development of therapies. Rapid advances in biologic production in recent years have further contributed to increase in use of cryopreserved biosamples in therapeutic applications.

Availability of high - quality biological samples is very important for development of precision medicine. Precision medicine research involves comparison of properties of thousands of research biospecimens collected from both patients and healthy individuals. It aims to distinguish diagnostic and therapeutic values of individual patients. As a result, several pharmaceuticals and biotechnology companies operate or plan to operate their own biobanks.

Biospecimen Type Insights

Heterogeneity in types of biospecimens has resulted in classification of biobanks based on the types of cells stored. However, a majority of biospecimen stores are involved in storing more than two types of specimens. Solid tissues, serum/plasma, whole blood, peripheral blood, and bone marrow are the top specimens stored within biorepositories. This has allowed human tissue biospecimens to account for the largest share in 2017.

Technological advancements in cell acquisition and high potential applications of stem cells in regenerative medicine are driving stem cell banking at a lucrative pace. The surge in adoption of stem cell banking is primarily because of the need to preserve cellular characteristics and preventing deterioration and contamination for future stem cell usage in basic and translation research.

Higher usage in clinical treatments and easy accessibility has enabled adult stem cells to account for a major revenue share out of all stem cell types. Furthermore, usage of embryonic stem cells is limited due to ethical and legal issues over their use across the globe, as a consequence of variations in jurisdictions. In addition to this, iPSCs are used as a substitute to embryonic stem cells, which in turn, is expected to drive the iPS cell banking segment.

Biobank Type Insights

Hospital-based biorepositories use patient samples for future use in diagnostics and precision medicine. These can be used in diagnosis of conditions such as hypertension, atrial fibrillation or flutter, type II diabetes, sleep apnea, unspecified stomach pain, acute upper respiratory infections, pneumonia, bronchial asthma, cataract, and atherosclerotic heart disease.

This classification is based on confluence of certain criteria including type of specimen collected, group of donors, supporting organizations/ownership, intended use, and others. Virtual biobanking services are not involved in storing biospecimens, but provide a single point of access for a broad range of biospecimens. Key operating strategies of these banks include establishment of a well - connected network with biorepositories and end users. UCL Virtual Biobank, Specimen Central, BIOMARKAPD, and Northern Ireland Virtual Tissue Archive are some examples of virtual biobanking entities.

Regional Insights

North America dominated the global market in 2017 owing to the presence of numerous biobanking organizations. Furthermore, new players have emerged in the region and are undertaking various strategies to address cost recovery - related issues.

European countries made a significant contribution in 2017 owing to the presence of well - established network and infrastructure for processing, storage, and retrieval of biospecimens. EuroBioBank and BBMRI - ERIC are two large biobanking networks operating in Europe to support medical and research activities in this region.

Asia Pacific is poised to witness the fastest growth over the forecast period owing to increase in an aggregate number of new biospecimens being deposited. Countries such as Japan, China, Korea, Thailand, India, Singapore, and Australia have their network of biobanks in the global market.

Biobanks Market Share Insights

Majority of biobanks are established with an aim to fulfill biosample resource-related needs of larger organizations. An increasing number of for-profit biorepositories is expected to boost competition in the coming years.

Some of the key participants in the market are Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.; Merck KGaA; Qiagen; Hamilton Company; VWR International, LLC; Tecan Trading AG.; Danaher; BioCision; Charles River; Lonza; Biovault; and STEMCELL Technologies Inc. These players are involved in development of temperature control and cryopreservation systems to support biobanking operations.

Furthermore, major players such as Thermo Fisher and Lonza have strengthened their market presence by extending their offerings to biobanking services such as sample processing, storage, analysis, and transportation.

Biobanks Market Report Scope

Segments Covered in the Report

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 2014 to 2025. For the purpose of this study, Grand View Research has segmented the global biobanks market report on the basis of product, service, biospecimen type, biobank type, application, and region:

• Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

  • 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, 2014 - 2025)

  • Biobanking & Repository

  • Lab processing

  • Qualification/ Validation

  • Cold Chain Logistics

  • Other Services

• Biospecimen Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

  • Human Tissues

  • Organs

  • Stem Cells

    • Adult Stem Cells

    • Embryonic Stem Cells

    • IPS Cells

    • Other Stem Cells

  • Other Biospecimens

• Biobank Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

  • Physical/Real

    • Tissue

    • Population-based

    • Genetic (DNA/RNA)

    • Disease - based

  • Virtual

• Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

  • Therapeutics

  • Drug Discovery & Clinical Research

  • Clinical Diagnostics

  • Others

• Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

  • North America

    • The U.S.

    • Canada

  • Europe

    • Germany

    • The U.K.

  • Asia Pacific

    • Japan

    • China

  • Latin America

    • Brazil

  • Middle East & Africa

    • South Africa