Abstract

Point of Need Testing & Liquid Biopsy Technology & Market Overview: Challenges, Market Trends and New Solutions

Asma Siari, Technology and Market Analyst, Yole Développement

As healthcare becomes more consumer-focused, the need for convenient diagnosis, monitoring, and screening tests is expanding worldwide. Disruptive innovations can substantially change industries and make their products and services cheaper, more accessible and provide benefits for patients. With integration and decentralization of healthcare delivery systems and shift of diagnostics from reference laboratories to locations closer from the patient, Point of Need testing based on microfluidic technologies is gaining ground, making a major impact on the medical practices in recent years. Innovative companies in this market have respond to the unmet need for non-invasive and decentralized testing by undertaking technological approaches to develop diagnostics tests for an array of applications. Liquid biopsy is also an emerging technology enabling a novel approach to cancer testing. Considered as an attractive alternative to invasive and expensive solid biopsies, liquid biopsy tests are helping cancer therapy selection and monitoring. Liquid biopsy testing involves the molecular characterization of analytes such as ctDNA, CTCs, or exosomes, enabling better understanding of cancer mechanisms. However, an extensive validation of these tests in clinical trials is definitely required before they are expected to gain widespread adoption in clinical practice. Yole will provide an overview of these devices, their applications and the challenges that industries will face to commercialize their technologies.