[195 Pages Report] Bioinformatics is the application of computer technology for the management and analysis of biological data. It includes collection, storage, retrieval, manipulation, and modelling of data for analysis, visualization, or prediction through algorithms and software. The global bioinformatics market is expected to account for USD 7,063.7 billion in 2018. It is expected to reach USD 13,901.5 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 14.5% during the forecast period.

Growth of the bioinformatics market is driven by the growing demand for nucleic acid and protein sequencing, increasing government initiatives and funding, and increasing use of bioinformatics in drug discovery and biomarker development processes. With the introduction of upcoming technologies such as nanopore sequencing (third generation sequencing technique) and cloud computing, the market is expected to offer significant opportunities for manufacturers of bioinformatics solutions. However, factors such as a dearth of skilled personnel to ensure proper use of bioinformatics tools and lack of integration of a wide variety of data generated through various bioinformatics platforms are hindering market growth.

By Product and Services, bioinformatics platforms segment is expected to be the fastest-growing segment in the forecast period

Knowledge management tools commanded the largest market share in the global bioinformatics market in 2018, while the bioinformatics platforms segment is expected to be the fastest-growing segment in the forecast period. The major factor driving growth of bioinformatics platforms is their growing use in various genomic applications. In addition, the use of bioinformatics platforms is increasing in the drug discovery & development process, which is contributing to market growth. However, the lack of standardization in bioinformatics platforms across the industry is restraining growth of the bioinformatics platforms market, owing to which bioinformatics professionals have to work with varying standards and platforms that give no reproducible results

By Application, the metabolomics segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period

Factors such as the availability of research funding and government support are fueling market growth. However, metabolomes cannot be easily identified or figured from reconstructed biochemical pathways due to enzymatic diversity, substrate ambiguity, and difference in regulatory mechanisms. Hence, the annotation of unknown metabolic signals is the main hindrance to growth of the metabolomics segment.

By Sector, medical biotechnology segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period

Various pharmaceutical companies are increasingly adopting bioinformatics tools to decrease the cost and time involved in drug discovery. Bioinformatics approaches for target discovery and validation are proving more efficient than traditional methods. With the help of bioinformatics tools, much of the information regarding drug candidates is validated at a molecular level, which tends to reduce drug attrition rate in the later stages of drug development. Thus, contributing to the success of more drug candidates in the clinical trials is making the drug development process more cost effective.

Pharma companies are also using AI along with bioinformatics tools to identify drug targets. Merck entered the AI space by collaborating with Numerate, Celgene partnered with GNS Healthcare, GSK collaborated with Exscientia, while Pfizer entered into a collaboration with IBM Watson for drug discovery research.

Bioinformatics in clinical diagnostics sector includes analysis of human genome with reference to disease diagnosis. This involves study of various omics technologies such as proteomics, metabolomics, metagenomics, epigenetics, and transcriptomics. Data generated through different omics technologies has assisted in the development of bioinformatics methodologies for clinical research and for building human databases. These computational approaches are then used to understand information about the origin, evolution, progression, and treatment of diseases, leading to the development of personalized medicine. Increased use of bioinformatics tools by clinicians also contributes to growth of the bioinformatics market. Rising use of bioinformatics tools is evident in the US, Europe, and parts of APAC. The APAC is expected to show highest CAGR while North America is expected to account for the largest share of the medical biotechnology market during the forecast period.

In 2018, The APAC market is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period

The market in the Asia Pacific region is expected to offer significant opportunities for players to offset revenue losses incurred in mature markets. Emerging countries in this region are witnessing growth in their GDPs and a significant rise in disposable income levels. This has led to increased healthcare spending by a larger population base, healthcare infrastructure modernization, and rising penetration of cutting-edge research and clinical laboratory technologies, including bioinformatics, in Asia Pacific countries. These factors are expected to provide significant growth opportunities to bioinformatics companies operating in this region.

Market Dynamics

Driver: Growing demand for nucleic acid and protein sequencing due to reductions in sequencing costs and technological advancements

Bioinformatics is increasingly being used to identify genes in DNA sequences. The information collected is used to understand the molecular mechanisms of diseases. This assists in developing better treatments and diagnostic tests. Recently, due to significant reductions in costs of sequencing, many scientific research institutes and biotech companies have undertaken initiatives to perform sequencing studies at their own facilities. Similarly, sequencing and data analysis and interpretation can now be completed within days after the development of faster and sophisticated bioinformatics tools. With advancements in technology, there has been an increase in the speed of decoding genetic sequences, which has decreased the overall cost of sequencing and analysis per sample. The reasons behind this decrease in cost include the development of innovative DNA sequencing platforms and various bioinformatics tools.

Restraint: Lack of well-defined standards and common data formats for the integration of data

Standardization is crucial to ensure uniform and accurate results of samples for studies in healthcare. According to a social science research network, there is a lack of well-defined standards in bioinformatics, and because of this, every database or institute has its own exclusive identifiers, indexing schemes, data formats, and tools. In addition, as data models change frequently, the data integration process is often a significant challenge. Considering these factors, there is a need for standard bioinformatics infrastructure that can decrease data storage, increase data processing performance, and integrate diverse information.

Opportunities: IT giants investing in the development of bioinformatics solutions

IT giants have started focusing on bioinformatics for healthcare applications. Investments are being made for more advanced tests and techniques in battling diseases such as cancer and Parkinson�s. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos have invested millions of dollars in Grail, a start-up by gene sequencing firm Illumina that a former Google executive leads. Grail is developing a cancer-screening blood test for people, even if they show no symptoms. The test�s development is expected to require many samples to be sequenced and analyzed by using more comprehensive bioinformatics tools and databases.

Another IT giant, IBM, has introduced the IBM Watson for Genomics, which searches electronic medical databases to find information that may be relevant to a particular genomic sequence. IBM Watson�s beta version of Watson for Genomics is now commercially available for genomic data interpretation through partnerships with Quest Diagnostics, Illumina, or as a cloud-based software for clinicians and researchers. In 2018, Watson for Genomics was also used in clinical practice at the VA Health System, the largest integrated health system in the US. Similarly, in May 2018, IBM Watson for genomics was integrated with the Apollo chain of hospitals for the treatment of Cancer in India after results were found promising at the Manipal Hospital

Challenge: Shortage of skilled bioinformatics professionals

Globally, there is a huge demand for bioinformatics experts among companies operating in various sectors such as drug development, agriculture, and IT. Due to advancements in data generation techniques, a large amount of data is being generated per second, which is accumulating and is expected to become redundant. The number of skilled bioinformaticians is required to analyze data to reduce the gap. To cope with this issue, many companies are tying up with universities to hire the best talent in bioinformatics.

However, the industry is increasingly witnessing a dearth of skilled bioinformatics professionals. According to CSI-India, there is a severe shortage of bioinformatics professionals and molecular modeling experts at a global level. Similarly, as per the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology (India), the cheminformatics field has a dearth of qualified bioinformatics professionals who can use computers and databases for chemical compounds or drug development. Most scientists at the forefront of experimental research lack bioinformatics expertise, which is a constraint in the full utilization of bioinformatics solutions in life science research.

Scope of the Report:

Report Metric Details Market size available for years 2016�2023 Base year considered 2017 Forecast period 2018�2023 Forecast units Million (USD) Segments covered By Product & Services, By Sector, By Application and By Region Geographies covered North America (US & Canada), Europe (Germany, France, UK, RoE) APAC (Japan, China, India, RoAPAC), and RoW Companies covered Thermo Fisher Scientific, Eurofins Scientific, Illumina, Perkinelmer, Inc., Qiagen Bioinformatics, Agilent Technologies, Dnastar, Waters Corporation, Sophia Genetics, Partek, Biomax Informatics AG, Wuxi Nextcode, Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI)

Key Market Players

Thermo Fisher Scientific, Eurofins Scientific, Illumina, Perkinelmer, Inc., Qiagen Bioinformatics, Agilent Technologies, Dnastar, Waters Corporation, Sophia Genetics, Partek, Biomax Informatics AG, Wuxi Nextcode, Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI).

Product Launches, 2015�2018



Year Segment Product 2018 Metabolomics Data Analysis Compound Discoverer 3.0 software 2017 Reproductive Health Software VeriSeq NIPT Analysis Software launched in EU 2016 Informatics BaseSpace Informatics Suite 2016 Biology/ Chemistry ChemDraw Cloud Platform 2016 Data Analytics PerkinElmer Signals Perspectives

Key Questions Addressed by the Report:

Who are the major market players in the bioinformatics market?

What are the growth trends and the largest revenue-generating region for bioinformatics?

How are bioinformatics products and services sold to customers?

What are the major segments in bioinformatics market?

What are the driving, restraining, opportunistic, and challenging factors for this market?

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