Laboratory Informatics Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product (LIMS, ELN, SDMS, LES, EDC & CDMS, CDS, ECM), By Delivery Mode, By Component, By End-use, And Segment Forecasts, 2018 - 2025

Industry Insights

The global laboratory informatics market size was estimated at USD 2.26 billion in 2016 and is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 6.1% over the forecast period. Increase in demand for laboratory automation is expected to fuel the adoption in coming years. 

Data generated by laboratories has dramatically risen in 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 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 & effective data analytics.

Furthermore, increasing burden from regulatory authorities for implementation lab automation systems is expected to serve this market 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. Rising penetration of high throughput systems has enabled efficient evaluation of experimental results, which increases the overall efficiency of laboratory operations.

Product Insights

Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) held the dominant share as of 2016.

These systems include master data management, reporting of sample lifecycle, stability study, system & security administration, schedules, inventory, instruments, storage capacity & logistics, and analytical workflow.

Demand for fully integrated services in life sciences & 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.

Enterprise Content Management (ECM) services are anticipated to show the fastest CAGE in coming years. The adoption of ECM is increasing over the 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 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

Cloud-based lab informatics solutions accounted for the largest revenue share and are 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., among others, 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 & space spent for system implementation and secured access to clinical information. Real-time data tracking, remote access to data, and 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 providing the 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 growth of web-based & on-premise segments over the forecast period.

Component Insights

Services segment registered the largest revenue share as of 215 and is anticipated to maintain its position. Increase in outsourcing of LIMS solutions is contributing toward its growth.  As large pharmaceutical research labs lack resources and skill set required for deployment of analytics, these services are outsourced by them.

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

Software segment is expected to show lucrative growth 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 latest analytics methods.

End-use Insights

The life sciences industry was the largest end-use segment and accounted for a share of over 28.4% in 2016. 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 & discovery silos.

Increasing technological advances in the healthcare owing to rising R&D in the field of medicine is anticipated to fuel the demand for LIMS. Increasing adoption of LIMS in hospital & 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.

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 cost is attributing toward the lucrative growth of CROs & BPO segments.

LIMS also finds applications in forensic science, metal & mining industry, and other pharma laboratories. The rising need to curb operational costs coupled with the benefits associated with LIMS usage is key factors expected to contribute to the growth of this segment.

Regional Insights

North America regional market accounted for the largest revenue share as of 2016. The major factor contributing to the growth of this region are the policies supporting the deployment of laboratory information systems and 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.

Asia Pacific regional 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 market growth.

Laboratory Informatics Market Share Insights

Some of the key market participants include LabWare, Core Informatics, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., PerkinElmer Inc., LabVantage Solutions, Inc., Abbott Laboratories, LabLynx, Inc., Agilent Technologies, Waters, Cerner Corporation, IDBS and McKesson Corporation. 

The market 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.

Report Scope

Segments covered in the report

This report forecasts revenue growth at global, regional, & country levels, and provides an analysis of the 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 laboratory informatics market report on the basis of product, delivery mode, component, end-use, and region:

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

  • 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, 2014 - 2025)

  • On-premise

  • Web-hosted 

  • Cloud-based

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

  • Software

  • Services

• End-use Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

  • Life Sciences

  • CROs

  • Chemical Industry

  • Food and Beverage and Agriculture Industries

  • Environmental Testing Laboratories

  • Petrochemical Refineries & Oil and Gas Industry

  • Other Industries (Forensics and Metal & Mining Laboratories)

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

  • North America

    • U.S.

    • Canada

  • Europe

    • UK

    • Germany

  • Asia Pacific

    • Japan

    • China

    • India

  • Latin America

    • Brazil

    • Mexico

  • Middle East & Africa

    • South Africa