Market for precision market heading towards $100 billion

The precision medicine market is booming. Already valued at over $50 billion, its growth is expected to continue unabated, with estimates of $100 billion mooted by 2026. 

Research and Markets’ recent report on the precision medicine market forecasts significant growth across the sector, with a range of influences driving its progress. COVID-19 features heavily in all aspects of life in the early 2020s, and precision medicine, unsurprisingly, is also influenced by the ongoing pandemic. As the virus swept the planet, so the need for urgent, effective treatments and accurate diagnostic tools brought the benefits of precision approaches into sharp focus.

Funding for precision medicine saw a sharp uptick in 2020, in order to help address the challenges of COVID-19. For example, projects to study how the disease affects the immune system and respiration, and studies to identify genetic factors implicated in susceptibility to serious disease as a consequence of infection have benefited from investment.

The investment in precision approaches to COVID-19 will have knock on benefits for ongoing work in precision medicine too. Cancer is a long-held target for precision medicine and will continue to be so with nearly 20 million people globally believed to be living with cancer in 2020. The perceived shift away from treatment-centric medicine to preventative approaches should also benefit from increased investment. The development of national genetic repositories – and the sharing of such data across national (and perceived) boundaries – is vital for either focus. Delays in screening for a number of cancers has experienced delays in the light of COVID-19, so the introduction of rapid diagnostic tools will be needed to address the risk of ongoing delays to managing these and other life-threatening conditions.

The competition within precision medicine is high, with both large and small companies vying for pieces of the market and being first to their niche. Competition will help the market to mature faster and will ensure prices remain manageable, ultimately making adoption cheaper and faster.