Transfection Technology Market

Demand for transfection technology is anticipated to rise in forthcoming years due to rising incidence of cancer and growing research and development in field of cell based therapies. Moreover, research in gene transfer focus on invention of therapeutic procedures. These procedures will address various treatment area.

Earlier, transfection technologies have been used in various therapeutic therapies such as electro-chemotherapy and gene therapy.

Further, transfection technologies are categorized on physical basis (such as magnetofection, nucleofection, electroporation, and gene gun), viral basis (adeno-associated viruses and adeno viruses), and biochemical basis (calcium phosphate, dextran mediated, and lipofection).

Over the years, chemical mediated and viral mediated transfection techniques have been adopted widely for various applications such as production of recombinant cell lines and gene therapy. Meanwhile, development in physical method is providing several advantages over other methods.  Electroporation is one such example. Also, it can be used across hard-to-transfect cells, which is not possible with other methods.

Registering the advantages of physical mediated method, the segment is expected to contribute significantly to growth of global transfection technology market in coming years.

Moreover, transfection technology is gaining popularity in stream of gene therapy. Medical practitioners are adopting the technology widely. As a result, demand for scalable viral vectors are likely to increase, specifically in new markets such as Europe and China.

Further, transfection based methods such as electroporation have to be exploited to their potential peak. This will help in various cancer therapies as electro chemotherapy.

Transfection is a process that involves production of genetically modified cells with the delivery of foreign nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) into the cell. There are two types of transfection technologies that include stable and transient. While stable transfection is permanent and the genes are continually expressed even after the host cell replicates, transient transfected genes are expressed for a limited period of time and are not integrated into the host genome. Increasing prevalence of cancer and growing obese population drives the global transfection technology market. In addition, initiatives taken by various government organizations also further accentuates the growth of this market. The global transfection technology market was valued at USD 386.4 million in 2012 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.7% from 2013 to 2019, to reach an estimated value of USD 768.2 million by 2019.

Transfection technologymarket is segmented mainly by types of method and application. The method segment of the market is classified as reagent-based method, instrument-based method and virus-based method. The reagent-based method is further segmented as lipid mediated transfection (Lipofection), calcium phosphate, cationic polymers, DEAE-dextran, activated dendrimers and magnetic beads. Reagent based transfection technology market is experiencing significant growth owing to cost effectiveness and less complicated methods involved during transfection. Likewise, instrument-based method includes electroporation, biolistic technology, microinjection and laserfection.Instrument-based methods are less time consuming and accurate;these advantages drive the growth of this segment.

Transfection technology application market is further segmented as biomedical research, therapeutic delivery and protein production. Rising prevalence of various cancers (prostate, breast and lung), cardiovascular diseases (arrhythmias, ischemic heart disease) and growing mass protein production further accentuates the global transfection technology market. Transfection technologies have also gained widespread popularity because manufacturers are constantly coming up with new and innovative instruments that are easy to use and less complicated.It was also observed that companies who were involved in this market collaborated with the local partners to enter emerging markets of Asia and Africa. For instance, Life Technologies Corporation acquired KDR Biotech Co., Ltd., a South Korea-based distributor of reagents, in April 2013. This acquisition would further enhance Life Technologies Corporation’s revenue in the South Korean biotechnology market. Increasing prevalence of infectious diseases (H1N1, H1N5) also accentuates the demand for global transfection technology market. However, cytotoxic effects, technological complications associated with instrument-based and virus-based methods might restrict the demand of the global transfection technology market to a certain level.

North America contributed the largest share, i.e.over 45%, in 2012 of the global transfection technology market. Increasing awareness about transfection applications and various government initiativesare the major factorsdriving the growth of transfection technology market in North America.For instance, in February 2012, National Cancer Institute (NCI) signed a research agreement with Polypus Transfection S.A., a France-based, privately-held company. This agreement includes Polyethylenimine (PEI) reagent from Polypus Transfection S.A that will be utilized by the National Cancer Institute for in-vitro transfection exploration to produce transfected proteins, viruses and antibodies.Europe contributed the second largest share of the total market in 2012.Utilization of nanomedicine in diagnostics, targeted drug delivery, clinical trials and drug development studies is on the peak in Europe. Transfection technologies and reagents are combined with nanoparticles for better efficacy in the above mentioned studies. For instance, the European Commission published in 2011 that it had funded around 200 projects which include utilization of nanomedicine in research and development under sixth and seventh framework program.The Asia-Pacific region is expected to witness the fastest growth (CAGR – more than 10%)due to increasing prevalence of infectious diseases and utilization of biopharmaceuticals for drug discovery and development.

In terms of key players, the global transfection technologymarket is highly fragmented that comprises of Life Technologies Corporation, Lonza Group Ltd, Mirus Bio LLC, Polypus Transfection S.A, Promega Corporation and others.