The ‘Blood Products’ Market Presents Significant Opportunities For Biobanks

6 Dec, 2019

Biobanks, also known as bio-repositories, collect, analyze, store and distribute human biological specimens for research purposes and for treating medical conditions. They can be established within academic, medical or research institutions, pharmaceutical/biotechnology companies, hospitals or as stand-alone organizations. The bio-specimens include whole organs, tissue, blood products, plasma, urine, or intracellular components such as DNA and RNA. Thus, the global biobanks market is segmented by type into blood products, human tissues and cell lines, nucleic acids, and other biological specimens.

Of these segments, the blood products market was the largest segment in the global biobanks market, with 75.8% of the market, worth $38.1 billion in 2018. This dominant share in the market was due to greater use of blood products (such as plasma and platelets) than cell lines, nucleic acids and human tissues and cells for treating medical conditions and for medical research. Blood products are obtained by separation of blood into its components through centrifugation. Centrifugation is a process for separating the particles from a solution by rotating it around a fixed axis. The particles are separated according to their size, shape, density and viscosity of the medium. The blood products market is expected to grow at an annual rate of almost 5% to 2023.

The cell lines market was the second largest segment in the global biobanks market with 9.7% of the market in 2018. This share in the market was mainly contributed by the extensive use of stem cells for cancer research and treatment. They are widely used in many developed countries such as the USA, the UK, and Germany.

Going forward, the fastest growing segment of the global biobanks market will be the human tissues and cells market, growing at an annual rate of 12.3% between 2018 and 2023. This rapid growth can be attributed to increasing use of biobank services to store eggs and sperms for surrogacy and to conceive children at a later stage in life.

Upon conducting a market size gain analysis, it was estimated that the blood products segment, despite its comparatively slow forecast growth rate, will be the segment where there is significant business opportunity to be gained by competitors in the next five years. The blood products market will put on the most value at $10,384.95 million.

Global players in the biobanks market are investing in mergers and acquisitions, perhaps with an aim of strengthening their blood products division. In April 2016, Grifols S.A. acquired 49% stake in Interstate Blood Bank, Inc., for $100 million. The deal will likely strengthen Grifols’ position in the blood products market. Interstate Blood Bank provides human blood and blood components to the therapeutic and diagnostic industries. The company was formed in 1949 and is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, United States.