Asia Pacific Newborn Screening MarketSize and Trends

The Asia pacific newborn screening market is estimated to be valued at US$ 308.9 million in 2022 and is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 12.9% during the forecast period (2022-2030).

Figure 1. Asia Pacific Newborn Screening Market Share (%), by End User, 2022

Figure 2. Asia Pacific Newborn Screening Market Share (%), by Countries, 2022

Increasing government initiatives is expected to drive growth of the Asia Pacific newborn screening market

Increasing engagement programs by various government healthcare regulatory bodies for newborn screening and its deployment for wider population base are expected to drive growth of the market during the forecast period. For instance, in January 2022, Trivitron, medical devices company, informs that implementation of newborn screening at the national level will help to identify the infants who need urgent medical care at a much larger scale. Newborn screening is a program that facilitates the early detection of several genetic, endocrine, and metabolic disorders.

Furthermore, in March 2018, Under National Rural Health Mission, significant progress had been made in reducing mortality in children. Whereas, there is an advance in reducing child mortality there is a dire need to improving survival outcome. This would be reached by early detection and management of conditions that were not addressed comprehensively in the past. Indian Government started the RASHTRIYA BAL SWASTHYA KARYAKRAM (RBSK) in 2019 for the early diagnosis of genetic, endocrine and metabolic disorders. Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) is an important initiative aiming at early identification and early intervention for children from birth to 18 years to cover 4 ‘D’s namely defects at birth, deficiencies, diseases, development delays including disability.

Increasing use of advanced technology for newborn screening is expected to drive the market over the forecast period.

Technological advancements in tandem mass spectrometry, colorimetric analysis test, fluorescence analysis test, enzyme or liquid chromatography, and various immunological assays and other analysis and high adoption rate of newborn screening with new technology are factors that are expected to drive growth of the market. In October 2018, LifeCell International, India’s leading stem cell bank and mother & baby diagnostics company, launched RightStart, the world’s first integrated DNA testing for newborn screening to detect over 50 medical conditions.

Asia Pacific Newborn Screening Market– Impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic

Since the COVID-19 virus outbreak in December 2019, the disease has spread to over 100 countries across the globe and the World Health Organization had declared it a public health emergency on January 30, 2020.

COVID-19 can affect the economy in three main ways: by directly affecting production and demand of drugs, medical screening, nutritional supplements, etc. by creating disruptions in distribution channels, and through its financial impact on firms and financial markets. Due to nationwide lockdowns, several countries, such as China, India, Saudi Arabia, U.A.E., Egypt, and others, are facing problems with regards to the transportation of drugs from one place to another.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the Asia pacific newborn screening market, owing to the disruption in healthcare services. For instance, in March 2022, according to data published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, global COVID-19 pandemic has presented extraordinary disruption to healthcare services and exposed them to numerous challenges. Newborn screening (NBS) programmes were also affected; however, scarce data exist on the impact of COVID-19 on NBS. COVID-19 impacted the NBS programs at least partially in most of the responding countries. Majority of the screening centers experienced a broad spectrum of difficulties and were affected to a greater extent in the second wave of the pandemic. Delays and unreliability in the postal service as well as flight cancellations caused delays in sample transport to screening centers. The provision of laboratory equipment and reagent supplies was also affected. The number of staff available to perform screening was reduced due to infection, quarantine or reassignment to COVID-19 wards, sometimes resulting in complete closure of screening laboratories and the need to send the samples to other centers for analysis.