admin Technology has had a tremendous impact across all industries, and the technology of automation has brought with it significant changes to multiple disciplines, including laboratories. The concept of laboratory automation involves using technologies to improve and optimize processes taking place in the laboratory for any kind of research, whether academic, commercial, research or government. The implementation of suitable lab automation can boost productivity, improve experiment quality, increase efficiency, reduce the time taken, and facilitate more innovation in processes.
Laboratory automation or Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) can be broadly classified into 6 categories, namely, scientific data management system, liquid handling and microplate readers, electronic laboratory notebook/laboratory execution system, multiplex, and high-throughput ELISA systems, informatics and robotics.
Lab Automation Market Size
The current lab automation market size is estimated to be worth $3.50 billion and is expected that by 2024, the market value would reach $4.91 billion. The healthcare LIMS market is currently estimated to be worth $1.11 billion and is expected to reach $1.75 billion by 2024. Laboratory automation services have been found to result in a return on investment within 3 months, supporting an 80 percent increase in efficiency and a 40 percent reduction in configuration effort.
- Life science and healthcare industries are the two major contributors to the laboratory automation market with life science accounting for 35-40 percent of the overall market. The increase in demand for laboratory automation from end-user segments of academic research and contract research organizations (CRO) is driving the increase in demand from life science segment. Biotechnology is another major segment making use of laboratory automation.
- Increasing competition in the laboratory segment overall has further increased the demand for laboratory automation, so as to maximize efficiency, accuracy, and productivity. As there are multiple variants of LIMS, that can be used for analytical, environmental, clinical, and manufacturing purposes, and can be further customized as per need basis, LIMS is highly suitable for a diverse range of applications. As a result, the market size for lab automation is immense, based on the numerous industries using the technology.
- At a regional level, North America is the dominant market for lab automation, with major players in the industry based in this region. Greater awareness about the uses of laboratories across different sectors is also considered to be a factor driving the growth of the lab automation market in North America. The Asia Pacific is projected to have significant growth opportunities in the lab automation market in the near future, driven by an increase in demand for research and development facilities, emerging economies and unmet medical needs. Due to the wide applications and usefulness of lab automation, there is great demand from developing and developed nations.
- The major constraints faced by the lab automation market are the lack of qualified professionals, cost of maintenance and non-uniform nature of integration standards. Laboratory automation also involves significant costs at the time of installation, however, with time the costs are expected to go down as the technology becomes more commonplace.
The laboratory automation market is growing at a steady pace, with mature markets in North America and emerging markets in the Asia Pacific. Lab automation has applications in numerous industries, including pharmaceuticals, research and development, cosmetics, government research, life sciences, biotechnology, CROs, and outsourced research labs. Although the lack of skilled professionals and cost of implementation are factors challenging the market, the benefits offered by lab automation provide a reasonable ROI, especially in fields with stiff competition.
