NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire -02/27/12)- Personalized medicine, or matching an individual patient to an individual treatment, has long been part of diagnostic testing, according to healthcare market research publisher Kalorama Information. But Kalorama estimates that new proven biomarkers, and a desire to better target cancer therapy, have grown personalized medicine testing to a $28 billion market in 2011. This finding was made in Kalorama's latest report: World Market for Personalized Medicine Diagnostics.

"The excitement over personalized medicine is reminiscent of the dot-com era, but the concept is not completely new," says Kalorama's lead diagnostic analyst Shara Rosen. She notes in the report that matching a drug's effectiveness with a patient's genetics has been considered since the 1950s. Blood testing, transplant tissue testing, microbial identification and AST susceptibility are examples of individualized testing that Rosen notes have been part of medicine for decades and these are considered in the report's analysis.

However, the study acknowledges that the current excitement in IVD, and a share of the growth in this market, is coming from new molecular tests and the profiling of solid cancer tumors, which the report says are creating an entirely new paradigm for diagnosing and choosing treatment options. These new tests are driving the market to better-than-average growth rates compared to other segments of the IVD market. Kalorama sees the primary growth drivers in the market are the discovery of biomarkers with clinical utility and better reimbursement for testing. But as the author of the report notes, the missing piece that is making the concept a reality is recent technology improvements.

"Cost-effective multiplex platforms, high powered software, assays using saliva, urine, and blood instead of biopsied tissue, these are the technological tools that make more sensitive and specific tests possible," says Rosen.

Kalorama also notes in the report that healthcare delivery trends and novel therapeutics help refocus the role of laboratory medicine in disease management to the patient by helping individualize diagnoses and treatments. Decentralization and wider availability of PMx (personalized medicine) tests can only happen with the conversion of lab-developed tests (LDTs) to CE Marked and FDA-cleared molecular testing methods. Advances in cancer therapies and the allure of personalized medicine provide another compelling argument for growth in the routine use of these tests.

In the full study, World Market for Personalized Medicine Diagnostics, Kalorama Information defines the current opportunity and realistic future potential of personalized medicine in clinical testing. In addition to analysis of tests currently on the market and in development, the report profiles key competitors and discusses trends that are important for understanding this much-discussed growth area of the diagnostic industry. It also profiles scores of companies that are involved in making tests for this market.

About Kalorama Information
Kalorama Information, a division of MarketResearch.com, supplies the latest in independent medical market research in diagnostics, biotech, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and healthcare; as well as a full range of custom research services. We routinely assist the media with healthcare topics. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and our blog.

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Kalorama: "Personalized Medicine" May Not Be New, but It Is Growing

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