Laboratory Informatics Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product (LIMS, ELN, SDMS, LES, EDC & CDMS, CDS, ECM), By Delivery Mode (Cloud-based, On-premise), By Component, By End-use, By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2021 - 2028

Report Overview

The global laboratory informatics market size was estimated at USD 3.1 billion in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.7% from 2021 to 2028. An increase in demand for laboratory automation is expected to fuel the adoption in the coming years. Data generated by laboratories has dramatically risen in the past few decades owing to rising technological advancements in molecular genomics and genetic testing practices. In addition, the shift of preference toward personalized medicine, cancer genomics studies, and increasing patient engagement requirement is expected to upsurge the demand for lab automation systems.

Laboratories are critical to both manufacturing and research organizations across the life sciences and medical research industries. The primary objective of a laboratory is to ensure the generation of high-quality and reliable experiment data that conforms to the regulatory guidelines of the industry. Advances in technology combined with stringent regulatory needs and increasing commercial pressures have led to the rapid generation of vast amounts of data from various aspects comprising research and development, quality assurance, and manufacturing.

Moreover, laboratory information systems are gaining popularity in biobanks, academic research institutes, and Contract Research Organizations (CROs) owing to the associated benefits. The benefits of using these systems process optimization, improved regulatory compliance and intellectual property rights protection, reduced throughput time and paperless information management reduces labor cost, offer improved data quality through the elimination of errors, and faster and effective data analytics.

Furthermore, the increasing burden from regulatory authorities for the implementation of lab automation systems is expected to serve the market for laboratory informatics with lucrative growth opportunities. The increasing adoption of robotics and process automation in healthcare has rendered operations reproducible and repeatable. It is now possible to set up, run, and analyze the experimental results in a shorter time. The rising penetration of high throughput systems has enabled efficient evaluation of experimental results, which increases the overall efficiency of laboratory operations.

The outbreak of the Coronavirus has turned the spotlight on the healthcare sector. Shortages of critical medical supplies during this pandemic have severely impacted the market for laboratory informatics. Almost half of the laboratories around the world were shut down and an estimated 14% of the laboratories were fully functional. Subsequently, government measures like stay-at-home orders, social distancing norms, movement restrictions, and supply chain disruptions have created a logistical problem for companies, leading to shortages of on-premises delivery of products in the worldwide marketplace.

On the other hand, with unprecedented demand for COVID-19 testing worldwide, clinical labs have scaled up their operations and faced new challenges comprising development, standardization, and validation of the new methods for testing, administration of huge volumes of patient specimens and test data, besides rapid and reliable reporting of test outcomes. To speed up the high demand COVID-19 tests in clinical labs, a LIMS plays an essential role which led to the adoption of the product.

Product Insights

The Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) segment dominated the market for laboratory informatics and held the largest revenue share of 47.2% in 2020. These systems include master data management, reporting of sample lifecycle, stability study, system and security administration, schedules, inventory, instruments, storage capacity and logistics, and analytical workflow.

Demand for fully integrated services in life sciences and research industries to minimize data management errors and qualitative analysis of research information is expected to fuel the segment growth in coming years. Owing to these factors the LIMS segment is expected to maintain its position throughout the forecast period. In addition, the superior Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELN) system segment is anticipated to show significant growth due to its increased adoption by researchers in analytical chemistry labs.

The Enterprise Content Management (ECM) segment is anticipated to witness the fastest CAGR in the coming years. The adoption of ECM is increasing over time as it offers integrated and comprehensive solutions to meet the growing challenges in the healthcare industry. ECM offers a centralized approach to capture, create, organize, access, and analyze an organization’s entire ecosystem of media, knowledge assets, and electronic documents. The services offered by companies for ECM are consultation, design, implementation, and maintenance of these software solutions.

Delivery Mode Insights

The cloud-based segment dominated the market for laboratory informatics and accounted for the largest revenue share of 42.5% in 2020 and is expected to maintain its dominance throughout the forecast period. Cloud-based technology helps in storing large amounts of data remotely to allow free space on devices and facilitate data retrieval according to client needs.

The technology comprises three services including Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). The cloud-based analytics software is available as SaaS-based services. IBM offers its Watson Analytic services on the SaaS platform. Companies such as Core Informatics and LabVantage Solutions, Inc., are offering cloud-based services for LIMS.

Increase in adoption of cloud-based platforms by CROs due to associated benefits such as reduction in labor cost, saving time and space spent for system implementation, and secured access to clinical information. Real-time data tracking, remote access to data, and an easy ecosystem are some other benefits of cloud-based systems. These aforementioned factors are expected to serve this segment with lucrative opportunities.

On-premise delivery mode involves the installation of services and solutions on computers present within the organization. Web-based LIMS solutions are delivered to users through web servers using the internet protocol. Web-based solutions comprise four elements including internet connection, web server, data administrator, and the software coding system. Utilizing the internet and web-based services provides an advantage of accessing the remotest of the areas using only one computer or monitoring device in labs. The increased adoption of cloud computing solutions is expected to slow down the growth of the web-based and on-premise segments over the forecast period.

Component Insights

The services segment dominated the laboratory informatics market and accounted for the largest revenue share of 57.9% in 2020. The segment is anticipated to maintain its position over the forecast period. An increase in outsourcing of LIMS solutions is contributing toward its growth.  As large pharmaceutical research labs lack the resources and skillset required for the deployment of analytics, these services are outsourced by them.

The CROs offer laboratory informatics services in packages that include compliance with promotional spending, social media analytics, manufacturing process, preventive maintenance, predictive analytics for medical device failure, and benchmarking solutions. Growing awareness pertaining to the associated benefits of these solutions amongst users is expected to fuel its demand in the coming years.

The software segment is expected to show lucrative growth over the forecast period due to the availability of technologically advanced software, such as SaaS, which offers effective information management solutions for laboratories. The software offered for laboratory informatics can perform critical functions such as data capture, storage, interpretation, and analysis. Periodic up-gradation of this software is necessary to be coordinated with the latest analytics methods.

End-use Insights

The life science companies segment dominated the market for laboratory informatics and accounted for the largest revenue share of over 28.6% in 2020. This segment encompasses biobanks, molecular diagnostic and clinical research laboratories, contract service organizations, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and academic research institutes. The demand for laboratory informatics is increasing in the life sciences industry to develop innovative products, improve product quality, and operational efficiency. To fulfill these requirements, the need for more virtual and electronic laboratories is increasing. Laboratory informatics systems allow effective management of huge amounts of data and break down research and discovery silos.

Increasing technological advances in healthcare owing to rising R&D in the field of medicine are anticipated to fuel the demand for LIMS. The increasing adoption of LIMS in hospital and research labs due to its growing application scope for patient engagement, workflow management, billing, patient health information tracking, and quality assurance is expected to augment the growth.

The CROs segment is expected to exhibit profitable growth during the forecast period due to the increasing trend of outsourcing. Increasing adoption by outsourcing companies to curb healthcare costs is attributing to the lucrative growth of the CROs segment. LIMS also finds applications in forensic science, the metal and mining industry, and other pharma laboratories. The rising need to curb operational costs and the benefits associated with LIMS usage are key factors expected to contribute to the growth of this segment.

Regional Insights

North America dominated the market for laboratory informatics and accounted for the largest revenue share of 43.4% in 2020. The major factors contributing to the growth of this region are the policies supporting the deployment of laboratory information systems and the availability of infrastructure with high digital literacy. In addition, the burgeoning healthcare cost coupled with the escalating pressure to bend the cost curve resulted in increased adoption of LIMS in this region. In addition, the presence of well-established pharma companies combined with the growing requirement to contain operational costs incurred in information management and analysis are the key contributing factors to the growth.

In Asia Pacific, the market for laboratory informatics is expected to witness lucrative CAGR in coming years owing to the increasing number of CROs offering LIMS solutions in this region. Major players outsource LIMS from the companies in this region to reduce the cost of LIMS support systems and improve operational efficiency.

The developing economies such as India and China emerge as outsourcing hubs. The Ministry of Health in China has defined an action plan for the deployment of e-health-related solutions to geographically dispersed sections of the country encompassing broad areas of medical services, insurance plans, and with a large focus on the adoption of electronic record systems to allow data sharing across the national healthcare system. The initiatives like these are expected to help to penetrate the lab informatics in China, thus boosting the growth of the market for laboratory informatics.

Key Companies & Market Share Insights

The market for laboratory informatics is highly fragmented with many small and large market players. This leads to high competition in smaller market players to sustain their position. Technologically advanced platforms developed by the companies, such as Software as a Service (SaaS), advanced products with the greater utility to gain an edge over competitors. Moreover, the companies are providing customized LIMS solutions. Hence, rivalry within the industry is anticipated to be high during the forecast period. Some of the prominent players in the laboratory informatics market include:

• Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.

• Core Informatics

• LabWare

• PerkinElmer, Inc.

• LabVantage Solutions, Inc.

• LabLynx, Inc.

• Agilent Technologies

• ID Business Solutions Ltd.

• McKesson Corporation

• Waters Corporation

• Abbott Informatics

Laboratory Informatics 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 2016 to 2028. For the purpose of this study, Grand View Research has segmented the global laboratory informatics market report on the basis of product, delivery mode, component, end-use, and region:

• Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2028)

  • Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS)

  • Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELN)

  • Scientific Data Management Systems (SDMS)

  • Laboratory Execution Systems (LES)

  • Electronic Data Capture (EDC) & Clinical Data Management Systems (CDMS)

  • Chromatography Data Systems (CDS)

  • Enterprise Content Management (ECM)

• Delivery Mode Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2028)

  • On-premise

  • Web-hosted 

  • Cloud-based

• Component Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2028)

  • Software

  • Services

• End-use Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2028)

  • Life Science Companies

    • Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Companies

    • Biobanks/Biorepositories

    • Contract Services Organizations

    • Molecular Diagnostics & Clinical Research Laboratories

    • Academic Research Institutes

  • CROs

  • Chemical Industry

  • Food & Beverage and Agriculture Industries

  • Environmental Testing Laboratories

  • Petrochemical Refineries and Oil & Gas Industry

  • Other Industries (Forensics and Metal & Mining Laboratories)

• Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2028)

  • North America

    • U.S.

    • Canada

  • Europe

    • U.K.

    • Germany

    • France

    • Italy

    • Spain

    • Russia

  • Asia Pacific

    • Japan

    • China

    • India

  • Latin America

    • Brazil

    • Mexico

  • Middle East & Africa

    • South Africa

    • Saudi Arabia