Biophotonics market forecasted to hit $36B by 2017, analysts say

Market research firms Yole Développement (Lyon, France) and Tematys (Paris France), along with the European Photonics Industry Consortium (EPIC; also in Paris), have collaborated on a technology and market analysis report that forecasts the biophotonics market to grow from $23B in 2012 to $36B by 2017, with strong compound annual growth rate (CAGR) increases for emerging opportunities in imaging and sensing modalities. Once limited to hundreds or thousands of units per year in high-end desktop devices for life science and healthcare applications, biophotonics now could enable cost-effective devices targeting million-unit markets as well as open doors for new entrants.

Related: Global biophotonics market should exceed $99B by 2018, says GIA

After providing exclusive market segmentation, the report details the market drivers and technology trends for each application. One specific report section describes the following emerging applications: agri/agro food, personalized medicine, and home care.

Driven by these opportunities, numerous scientific fields have emerged in laboratories over the last 10 years: Raman imaging and sensing, photoacoustic tomography and microscopy, terahertz imaging, and others. These sectors have benefited from huge telecommunications investments in sources, detectors, and fiber developments (handheld spectroscopy, cytometry and microscopy on a chip, high-power fiber lasers for dermatologic treatments, photoacoustic imaging, enhanced sensibility in fluorescence-based tests, etc.). Biophotonics products have become increasingly rugged and cost-effective, spurring a migration from life science and healthcare applications to agro-food and environment control and monitoring.

Also presented in the report is a specific overview of portable biophotonics technologies for in vivo imaging and in vitro analysis and sensing, along with a technology roadmap.

New opportunities are changing biophotonics’ entire makeup. Former markets like microscopy, spectroscopy, and medical imaging, all of which dealt with bulky and expensive systems, were mostly closed to new entrants. The key value for these markets was, above all else, a large installed systems base. By leaving labs and hospitals and spreading to operating rooms, general practitioners’ offices, and in-line/at-line industrial control, new cost-effective photonics technologies driven by fast-growing newcomers have in the last 10 years changed the rules.

In addition to a supply chain analysis, this report provides market access information (investment required, regulation aspects) and average time for market entry, depending on the application.

The report—Biophotonics Market, Focus on Life Sciences & Health Applications—provides extensive market data in US millions from 2011-2017, from the total biophotonics-related market and the biophotonics system market to the biophotonics components and modules market.

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