What are Emerging Technologies in Oligonucleotide Synthesis Market?
Though there are a set number of health conditions that can affect people, the actual effect they have can vary from one individual to another. This is because, though similar, every human is slightly different on the genetic level. Consequently, one treatment that works for one patient has no guarantee of working for another. With the realization of this fact, the medical specialty of personalized medicine has emerged, wherein the genetics of a person are studied to devise a suitable treatment.
With extensive research and development (R&D), scientists have realized that a lot of diseases are caused by mutations in a particular gene, and if that particular gene is somehow deactivated, the disease could be managed. One of the ways it is being done is by artificially producing an antisense oligonucleotide, which is a single-strand deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), ribonucleic acid (RNA) or a chemical analog, which attaches to the mutated gene’s messenger RNA (mRNA) and stops its functioning. Thus, with the rising focus on personalized medicine, the oligonucleotide synthesis market is expected to grow from $1.5 billion in 2017 to $2.8 billion by 2023, at a 10.8% CAGR during 2018–2023.
With time, oligonucleotide production methods have evolved, and techniques that can offer large quantities of these biopharmaceuticals in a cost-effective manner are making it to pharma and biotechnology laboratories. In addition to the development of synthesizers with a high throughout, better coupling reagents and advanced protecting amino acid group sets are also helping in the penetration of such biopharmaceuticals in research, diagnostics, and therapeutics. One of the newer approaches to synthesizing these products is the microarray technology, which has allowed for the study of numerous conjugates of oligonucleotides with biological ligands.
Several reagents & consumables and equipment, as well as synthesized oligonucleotides are available around the world. Among these, the demand for synthesized oligonucleotides is set to increase at the fastest rate in the coming years, as the production of these biopharmaceuticals is being rapidly outsourced by the major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to contract manufacturing organizations (CMO). Such products are used in research, therapeutics, and diagnostics, among which research is projected to be their fastest growing application area in the years to come.
Geographically, North America is the largest oligonucleotide synthesis market, as a result of the favorable government policies for associated research. Moreover, the healthcare infrastructure in the continent is more advanced than elsewhere, so the new technologies witness rapid penetration. Similarly, the prevalence of infectious diseases is also rising, and these biopharmaceuticals are being studied as a possible treatment. In the coming years, Asia-Pacific (APAC) would observe the fastest rise in the uptake of these products for research, diagnosis, and therapeutic purposes. This would be on account of the bettering healthcare infrastructure, increasing incidence of chronic diseases, and rising demand for better patient outcomes.
Moreover, the geriatric population is also booming in APAC, which is another reason the research on and usage of oligonucleotides would surge rapidly here. As people age, they become physically and immunologically weaker, which leads to a higher chance of various diseases, including infectious and non-infectious, in these people than those in the younger age groups. This is why, with the growing population of the elderly, the hospitalization rate is accelerating in the region and the demand for various therapies is rising.
Therefore, with increasing R&D in the medical field, the demand for artificially synthesized oligonucleotides will rise around the world.