GLOBAL PRECLINICAL IMAGING MARKET SIZE AND SHARE ANALYSIS - GROWTH TRENDS AND FORECASTS (2024-2031)

Market Challenges And Opportunities

Global Preclinical Imaging Market- Drivers

• Growing prevalence of chronic and infectious diseases: Growing burden of chronic and infectious diseases across the globe is a major factor driving the growth of the global preclinical imaging market. With rising life expectancy and changing lifestyle trends, non-communicable diseases like cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and neurological disorders are on the rise. For instance, in January 2022, according to the report provided by the American Cancer Society, there will be an estimated 1.9 Bn new cancer cases diagnosed and 609,360 cancer deaths in the U.S.
• Technological advancements in preclinical imaging modalities: Technological advancements in preclinical imaging modalities is a key driver for the growth of the global preclinical imaging market. Over the past decade, there have been significant innovations in the modalities that are being used for preclinical imaging such as bioluminescence, fluorescence, micro-computed tomography, micro-MRI, micro-PET and micro-ultrasound that have enabled researchers to gain deeper insights into disease progression as well as drug responses in small animal models at a cellular and molecular level. These advanced modalities provide high resolution structural and functional information which was not possible before.
• Increasing pharmaceutical and biotechnology research and development (R&D) expenditure: Increasing expenditure in pharmaceutical and biotechnology research and development is a major factor contributing to the growth of the global preclinical imaging market. As companies invest more heavily in developing new drug candidates and advancing their pipelines, there is greater need for advanced preclinical imaging modalities to aid in the research. Preclinical imaging allows researchers to visualize biological processes at the molecular and cellular levels in living subjects. This provides invaluable insights to assess how effectively drug candidates are working as intended in animal models before progressing to human clinical trials. With higher R&D budgets, companies are able to invest in the latest preclinical imaging technologies such as micro-CT, multi-modality, and fluorescent optical imaging systems.

Global Preclinical Imaging Market- Opportunities

• Combination of preclinical imaging with nanotechnology: Combination of preclinical imaging with nanotechnology could provide several opportunities to drive innovations in global preclinical imaging Nanotechnology allows developing novel molecular imaging probes and contrast agents to visualize complex biological processes at cellular and molecular levels. This high resolution imaging enables longitudinal tracking of disease progression and therapeutic response with minimum invasiveness. For example, gold nanoparticles functionalized with tumor targeting ligands helped in the early detection of pancreatic cancer in mice models. Such targeted nano probes when combined with multimodal imaging systems like positron emission tomography/ computed tomography (PET/CT) and PET/MRI allows for monitoring treatment efficacy with high precision.
• Multimodality imaging systems: Multimodality imaging systems offer a promising opportunity in the global preclinical imaging market. These systems employ multiple modalities such as PET, Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT), CT and MRI together to provide comprehensive anatomical and functional information from a single scan. This integrated approach brings tremendous clinical value over single-modality systems. Traditionally, researchers had to move samples between different single-modality machines to gain a multi-parametric view, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Multimodality imaging systems eliminate the need for this serial imaging workflow by acquiring different dataset types concurrently. This streamlines the research process significantly. For example, researchers studying disease progression can observe anatomical changes via CT along with molecular alterations through PET in one session itself.

Global Preclinical Imaging Market - Restraints

• High cost of preclinical imaging modalities: High cost of preclinical imaging modalities is a major factor restraining the growth of the global preclinical imaging market. Preclinical imaging modalities such as MRI, ultrasound, X-ray, optical imaging, and others require huge capital investments for purchasing the sophisticated imaging systems as well as high maintenance costs. The maintenance and service contracts generally cost 10-15% of the total equipment price annually. Technical expertise is also required to operate these complex preclinical imaging systems which increase the overall operational costs. Smaller research organizations and academic institutes often find it difficult to bear such high capital and operational expenses for advanced preclinical imaging. This poses significant budgetary challenges for them to routinely adopt newer and improved preclinical imaging modalities for research purposes.

Counterbalance: To counterbalance this restraint, the key market players need to focus on reducing the high maintenance costs of the preclinical imaging modalities.

• Stringent regulations for product approval: Stringent regulations for product approval are certainly restraining the growth of global preclinical imaging market. The process of getting new imaging technologies approved for use in clinical research is extremely long and complicated. Device manufacturers have to submit massive documentation covering all aspects of the product such as its design, safety, effectiveness, and others. They need to perform extensive testing and validation on animals to demonstrate the technology is safe and works as intended before it can be used on human subjects. This approval process takes 3 to 7 years on an average which discourages innovation.