A multi-billion dollar market with projected growth of nearly 10% to 20% annually in the next five years, Point of Care (POC) diagnostics for human health and Point-of-Use (POU) for non-human health should continue this growth trend as health care administrations try to cut costs as they further appreciate POC’s utility in streamlining patient treatment and improving healthcare outcomes and economics. Also, penetration into new disease indications, opportunities to enter new markets such as EMS, animal, industrial, biosecurity, Health Management, international expansion, further penetration of the OTC and home care markets should all continue to drive long-term market growth.

US POC markets offer a better opportunity than the more mature US market for central lab in-vitro diagnostics. Even more significant opportunity geographically lies in emerging markets and developing countries as they mature their economies in the coming decades. Among markets ex-US, Western Europe has been growing in the low double digits and emerging areas (including Eastern Europe, Asia, and South America) are registering growth of about 20% for the coming decade.

Developing countries are driving the emerging market growth due to an expanding middle class seeking healthcare in a broader way for the first time and who are ready to pay out-of-pocket for health care. Also, developing countries are less eager to invest in central labs and prefer POC and/or POU since it needs less fixed and/or infrastructure investment, especially in smaller towns and villages. The revolution that mobile telecom has provided to change life for the better in these same countries, with wireless phone networks and content services, short-circuiting the costly and technologically challenging landline investments that are needed. POC and POU can have the same effect for healthcare in these countries with same or higher quality and more cost-effective solutions adopted more rapidly.