European Clinical Laboratory Services Growth Opportunity

European Clinical Laboratory Services Growth Opportunity

Diagnostics is the backbone of the healthcare sector. According to a World Health Organization (WHO) study, although the segment accounts for less than 5% of hospital costs, its findings influence 60–70% of healthcare decision-making. Diagnostics helps to analyze medical conditions and guide patients toward the right medication, treatment, or surgery. The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored and redefined the significance of clinical laboratories. Working largely unseen, laboratories are a vital link in the chain of activities required to keep populations safe from diseases. In recognition of this, the WHO and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) moved quickly following the identification of the virus on 7 January 2020 to identify laboratory needs and capacities in Europe.

Molecular testing stepped up to meet the additional demand for insights in diagnostics, life science research, pharmaceutical R&D, and public safety. Molecular diagnostics is expanding to new areas of medicine and is enabling clinicians to monitor cancer, infectious disease, immune status, and pre-natal and neo-natal health. The migration of genomic technologies from basic research into the mainstream will remain a powerful driver for long-term industry growth and will boost the need for scalable and efficient user-friendly workflows in molecular testing.

Labs will have to provide comprehensive IVD solutions and cover clinical chemistry and immunoassays, molecular and digital diagnostics, POCT, patient self-testing, next-generation sequencing, laboratory automation and IT, and decision support, where half or more of the population has private coverage. Value-based healthcare (VBHC) is increasingly used in public discourse and, often, value is discussed as health outcomes relative to the monetized input. No singular definition of value exists in the VBHC space; the definition is subjective, and what is considered valuable can differ across patients, clinicians, healthcare providers, policymakers, and industry stakeholders.