Drug Screening Market - Growth, Trends, Covid-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2023 - 2028)

Drug Screening Market - Growth, Trends, Covid-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2023 - 2028)

The Drug Screening Market is expected to register a CAGR of 12.4% during the forecast period.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the market is expected to be significant. According to a recent survey conducted by the Current Consulting Group (CCG) in August 2020, about 21% of employers have reported a decline of 61% or more in the number of drug tests undertaken on their employees during the pandemic. This is attributed to several factors, including a decrease in the number of people being tested because of an increase in the number of employees working from home and general concerns about workplace drug testing safety and COVID-19 safeguards. Also, as per the research article published in Population Health Management, 2021, a significant decrease in the testing for prescription and illicit drugs was observed, with a weekly test volume decrease of 70%. Thus, decreased drug screening is expected to impact the market during the pandemic.

The key factor driving the global drug screening market are increased drug and alcohol consumption, strict alcohol and drug testing legislation, government funding for pharmaceutical development, and regulatory approvals. According to the World Drug Report 2021 published by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the number of people using drugs increased by 22% between 2010 and 2019. As per the UNODC findings, around 200 million people smoked cannabis in 2019, which accounted for 4% of the global population. Furthermore, according to the same source, the number of cannabis users increased by around 18% between 2010 to 2019. In addition, around 20 million people consumed cocaine in 2019, which accounted for 0.4% of the global population. Thus, the rising consumption of drugs among the population is expected to increase the demand for drug screening, in turn, fueling the overall market growth in the studied period.

However, prohibitions on the consumption of alcohol and drugs in some countries, as well as restrictions prohibiting drug testing at work, particularly in developed economies may hinder the global drug screening market's growth.

Urine testing is one of the most common testing methods for drugs. Benefits associated with urine testing such as noninvasiveness and the ability to detect large numbers of drugs in the sample are expected to drive the segment growth over the forecast period. Urine testing can detect drugs used within 1 to 4 days, sometimes even longer.

Urine drug testing is an important part of monitoring patients with long-term opioid therapy, and it has been suggested for patients receiving long-term benzodiazepine or stimulant therapy too. Also, it is one of the crucial tests to check opioid dependency. Thus, the rising prevalence of opioid overdose is expected to drive market growth over the forecast period. For instance, according to the World Health Organization 2021, opioids include compounds that are extracted from the poppy seed as well as synthetic and semi-synthetic compounds with similar properties that can interact with brain opioid receptors. According to the same source, about 275 million people (or 5.5% of the global population aged 15-64 years) used drugs at least once in 2019 globally. Among them, approximately 62 million people used opioids.

Additionally, as per the research article published in the Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine, 2020, there has been an increased adoption in the targeted panel of urine drug testing, and the value of clinical urine drug testing was observed to have improved by providing laboratory-based results interpretation and consultative services. Thus, owing to the aforementioned factors, the studied segment is expected to witness healthy growth over the forecast period.

North America dominates the drug screening industry due to the serious problem related to high levels of alcohol intake. Also, increasing consumption of illegal drugs, the availability of government funding to combat drug abuse, and the existence of strict rules in the country are encouraging drug screening. For instance, in April 2022, Quest Diagnostics performed drug testing and collected 11 million unidentifiable urine, hair, and oral fluid sample results between January and December 2021. According to Quest Diagnostics' annual drug index data published in March 2022, with 7.5 percent of employees testing were positive for marijuana between January and December 2021. According to the same report, based on over six million urine samples, marijuana had the highest positive rates in United States workforce increasing by 8.3% in the same period. Hence, the rising consumption of drugs among people is expected to increase the demand for drug screening tests, in turn, benefitting the overall market growth.

Furthermore, various initiatives are being implemented by United States government to monitor the symptoms and to determine whether a person is under drug abuse. For instance, the Patients and Communities Act of 2018 was a law implemented by the country to counter-acting drug abuse. Thus, the rising drug and alcohol abuse and strict regulations to detect intoxication in the body are expected to help the market growth in the region over the forecast period.

The key players operating in the global drug screening market are LabCorp, Quest Diagnostics, Abbott Laboratories, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., Alfa Scientific Designs, Inc., OraSure Technologies, Inc., Siemens Healthineers, Roche, Shimadzu, LifeLock Technologies, Drägerwerk, and Premier Biotech, Inc.

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