The Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.4% from 2021 to 2028 to reach $5.99 billion by 2028. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) is a laboratory procedure to identify the right antimicrobial regimen against microbes. Thus, AST of the causative agent(s) is essential for the timely selection of appropriate antimicrobial therapy. The antimicrobial susceptibility testing market is majorly driven by the high prevalence of infectious diseases, increasing government initiatives and funding towards antimicrobial susceptibility testing programs, technological advancements towards the development of new AST methods, and the emergence of multidrug resistance in microorganisms. However, stringent government regulations are expected to hinder the growth of this market to a certain extent. Emerging markets and active R&D to develop rapid antimicrobial susceptibility testing are expected to offer significant growth opportunities for players operating in the antimicrobial susceptibility testing market.
COVID-19 Impact Assessment
The ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic has diversely impacted healthcare markets either positively or negatively. As the world was fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, a critical issue of AMR was receiving less attention during the onset of the pandemic. With no proven therapy for COVID-19, initially, prescribers used antibiotics indiscriminately for treatment and prevention of presumed bacterial co-infections. Even in settings with established antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) programs, there were weaknesses exposed regarding appropriate antibiotic use in the context of the pandemic. Further, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance and AMS have been deprioritized with the diversion of health system resources to the pandemic response. This limited AMR surveillance and hindered market growth. However, the gradual slowing down of the pandemic and the irrational use of antimicrobials during the pandemic are accelerating antimicrobial susceptibility testing.
Moreover, the global spread of COVID-19 also adversely impacted operations, sales, and delivery & supply chains. Many countries implemented national lockdowns, shelter-in-place, curfews, travel restrictions, and isolation measures delaying distributions and affecting supply chains of the necessary instruments and consumables, negatively impacting the antimicrobial susceptibility testing market.
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Various Initiatives to Tackle AMR Projected to Drive the Adoption of Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing
Governments across the globe are heavily focusing on the policies and strategies to combat antimicrobial resistance. Further, initiatives undertaken to create awareness of antimicrobial resistance and curb antimicrobial abuse are aiding in educating decision-makers, regulatory agencies, and other end users regarding the prevention of antimicrobial resistance.
Some of the notable government initiatives to combat multidrug resistance include:
- In October 2020, The National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria (CARB), 2020-2025, was introduced to improve the health and wellbeing of all Americans by changing the course of antibiotic resistance. This plan continues to prioritize infection prevention and control to slow the spread of resistant infections and optimize the antibiotic use
- In 2019, the UK Government published a 20-year vision for tackling AMR and a 5-year action plan. Earlier, in 2018, the U.K. government launched a five-year national action plan detailing the contribution of the U.K. in controlling the growing global problem of antimicrobial resistance. The plan’s aim was to achieve a 10% fall in drug-resistant infections by 2025 and a 15% drop in human antibiotic use. The plan also targets to eliminate healthcare-related infections by 2024 and is expected to pave the way for investments in small biotech companies, which are working to reduce resistant infections.
Along with the initiatives undertaken to combat multidrug resistance, an increase in funding for the research and strategies for antibiotic susceptibility testing has contributed majorly to the improvement of antimicrobial susceptibility testing. Some of the notable investments done by government agencies towards research and development activities of ASTs are as below:
- In December 2019, the Government of Australia invested USD 8 million to support antimicrobial resistance in Australia and the Pacific Island countries for combating the AMR situation.
- In December 2019, The U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases allocated USD 102.5 million for over seven years for the Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group, a global consortium of experts leading a clinical antibacterial resistance research network.
- In September 2019, The U.K. aid program, The Fleming Fund, working for low and middle-income countries, announced to invest USD 3.3 million in One Health AMR surveillance systems in order to improve laboratory infrastructure and offer six fellowships to scientists in Pakistan.
Such government initiatives, along with increased research funding, drives the need for antimicrobial susceptibility testing products and are expected to drive the growth of the global antimicrobial susceptibility testing market in the future.
Active Research to Develop Rapid Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing to Create Several Opportunities for the Market Growth
The fast emergence of multidrug-resistant microbial pathogens has necessitated a profound understanding of the mechanisms of microbial infections, the development of new diagnostic tools and new antimicrobials. The rationalized use of large spectrum antimicrobial drugs requires a rapid and sensitive detection system to identify the most appropriate drug against a microorganism.
Current antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) technologies mostly rely on microbial culturing, replication, which can therefore take up to 1 to 3 days. Thus, owing to limitations of diagnostic’s speed, the use of broad-spectrum antimicrobials is preferred over accurate treatment, with effective narrow-range antimicrobial agents. Thus, the overuse of broad-spectrum antibiotics accelerates the further rise of AMR worldwide, resulting in active R&D for innovative approaches in development for rapid AST, which aim at faster detection times and reduced sample processing for effortless integration into a clinical lab setting. These include the atomic force microscopy (AFM) cantilever, MALDI-TOF MS and broth dilution, and nano motion detection.
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) cantilever characterizes the real-time physical activity of the bacteria utilizing low-frequency fluctuations of the cantilever. This approach can determine antimicrobial susceptibility testing profiles of fast-growing bacteria within an hour. Further, several AFM-based nano motion detectors that have shown positive results in case of septicemia are being tested for evaluation in the Lausanne University Hospital, Switzerland. In the case of positive evaluation, AFM-based nano motion detectors have an opportunity to be included in the routine diagnosis chain. Thus, the emergence of such new rapid technologies is paving the way for innovations in antimicrobial susceptibility testing, thereby offering market opportunities.
Key Findings in the Global Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Market Study:
Manual AST products segment estimated to generate a large revenue in terms of product in 2021.
Manual antimicrobial susceptibility testing includes susceptibility discs, susceptibility plates, and minimum inhibitory concentration strips. The growing use of antimicrobial susceptibility testing to devise a targeted antimicrobial therapy for patients and the growing emergence of antibiotic resistance cases are the factors driving the demand for conventional antimicrobial susceptibility testing techniques. High penetration of disc diffusion technique and developments in susceptibility plates are the factors driving manual antimicrobial susceptibility testing and related products market. Further, manual products provide flexibility and allow possible cost savings by using methods like disc diffusion and gradient diffusion methods.
Disk diffusion segment estimated to generate a large revenue in terms of method in 2021.
The advantages of the disk method are the test simplicity that does not require any special equipment, the provision of categorical results easily interpreted by all clinicians, and flexibility in the selection of disks for testing. The low cost of performing AST testing with the disk diffusion methods and developments in the method with automated technology is primarily boosting the segment market growth.
Clinical diagnostics segment estimated to generate a large revenue in terms of application in 2021.
The large share of this segment is mainly attributed to the rising burden of antibiotic resistance, increasing incidence of HAIs, the growing procedural volume of clinical diagnostic tests, rising emphasis on effective and early disease diagnosis across major markets, and growing awareness among physicians about antimicrobial susceptibility testing methods.
Diagnostic laboratories and hospitals segment estimated to generate a large revenue in terms of the end user in 2021.
The large share of this segment is mainly attributed to the availability of the well-equipped facility and trained/skilled technicians, rise in hospital-acquired infections, and initiatives taken by key players to offer AST products through diagnostic laboratories & hospitals.
Asia-Pacific: Fastest growing regional market.
Collaborative efforts by the government, health authorities, and medical professionals to combat antimicrobial resistance, high consumption of antibiotics, and growing issues of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and high incidence of sepsis and HIV/AIDS are the factors creating opportunities for market growth in Asia-Pacific. China is the largest market in the Asia-Pacific region in case of market share.
Key Players
The report includes a competitive landscape based on an extensive assessment of the key strategic developments adopted by leading market participants in the industry over the past three years. The key players profiled in the global antimicrobial susceptibility testing (blood samples) market report are Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (U.S.), Merck KGaA (Germany), Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (U.S.), bioMérieux S.A. (France), Becton, Dickinson and Company (U.S.), Danaher Corporation (U.S.), HiMedia Laboratories Pvt. Ltd. (India), MERLIN Diagnostika GmbH (Germany), Accelerate Diagnostics, Inc. (U.S.), Alifax S.r.l. (Italy), Creative Diagnostics (U.S.), Synbiosis (U.K.), and Zhuhai DL Biotech Co., Ltd (China).
Scope of the Report:
Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Market, by Product
- Manual Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Products
- Susceptibility Discs
- Susceptibility Plates
- Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) Strips
- Consumables
- Automated Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Products
Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Market, by Method
- Disc Diffusion
- Automated AST
- Dilution
- Other Methods
(Other methods include Etest, genotypic methods, and MALDI-TOF MS.)
Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Market, by Application
- Clinical Diagnostics
- Drug Discovery and Development
- Other Applications
(Other applications include epidemiology, veterinary diagnostic, and environmental monitoring)
Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Market, by End User
- Diagnostic Laboratories and Hospitals
- Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Companies
- Research and Academic Institutes
Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Market, by Geography
- North America
- Europe
- Germany
- U.K.
- France
- Italy
- Spain
- Rest of Europe (RoE)
- Asia-Pacific (APAC)
- China
- Japan
- India
- Rest of APAC (RoAPAC)
- Latin America
- Middle East & Africa
Key questions answered in the report: