CELL CULTURE MARKET ANALYSIS

Cell Culture Market Size and Trends

The cell culture market is estimated to be valued at USD 22.56 Bn in 2024 and is expected to reach USD 49.39 Bn by 2031, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.8% from 2024 to 2031.

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The cell culture market is expected to witness positive growth over the forecast period. Technological advancements in cell culture media formulations which help in optimal cell growth are expected to drive the market. Growing demand for therapeutic antibodies for treatment of chronic diseases and increased R&D investment in cell-based research are some other factors expected to support the growth of this market. With increasing development of advanced therapeutics, demand for improved cell culture technologies for effective production is also expected to increase. This will likely provide new opportunities for players in this market in the coming years.

Increasing investment in research and development (R&D)

Increasing investment by key market players in research and development for the development of cell culture products is expected to drive the growth of the global cell culture market over the forecast period. For instance, on July 27, 2021, Pall Corporation, a global supplier of filtration, separations, and purification products, announced that the company along with Cytiva, a company involved in the research and development of life-saving vaccines, biologic drugs, and novel cell and gene therapies, had jointly invested US$ 400 million in cell culture media.

Market Concentration and Competitive Landscape

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Increasing adoption of inorganic strategies like acquisitions by key players in market are expected to drive the market growth over the forecast period. For instance, on February 1, 2021, Cytiva, acquired Vanrx Pharmasystems, a Canada-based company that makes robotic aseptic filling machines to fill vials, syringes, and cartridges, to increase the production of cell culture and gene therapies.

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The cell culture market faces several challenges. High infrastructure and maintenance costs associated with cell culture processes strain budgets for research labs and manufacturers. Maintaining sterile conditions throughout production is also difficult and contamination risks delaying projects. Limited knowledge of 3D cell culture techniques restricts their applications. Understanding cellular behaviors in more complex multi-cellular 3D models remains an obstacle. Reproducibility difficulties due to natural variabilities between primary cell sources challenge progress. Regulations surrounding cell lines derived from human tissue add complexities to sourcing needs.

Market Opportunities: Advent of 3D cell culture technology

The advent of 3D cell culture technology could provide significant opportunities for growth in the cell culture market. 3D cell cultures allow for more complex tissue structures and cell-cell interactions compared to traditional 2D cultures. This increased physiological relevance provides opportunities to better model human disease for improved drug discovery and testing processes. 3D cultures mimic natural tissue architectures much more closely than 2D cultures. Within 3D cultures, cells can organize into multi-cellular spheroids or organoids that resemble natural tissues to a high degree.

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The product segment includes consumables (sera, media, reagents), and instruments (culture systems, cryostorage equipment, and biosafety equipment). Consumables is anticipated to hold 59.8% of the market share in 2024. Cell culture processes require consistent supplies of media, reagents, sera, buffers, and supplements to nurture and sustain cell growth. Since these consumables are expended with each experiment or production batch, their recurrent use makes them more affordable than larger upfront instrument purchases. Furthermore, consumables allow cultured cell maintenance and manipulation at much lower variable expenditures compared to operating equipment. Media and reagents form the foundation for cell culture workflows, providing nutrients and maintaining optimal conditions for cell viability. Their repeated replenishment during routine passage and scale-up drives the bulk of consumables spend. A range of sera containing growth factors and proteins stimulates proliferation, adhesion, and differentiation. Supplements enrich media with hormones, antibiotics, and attachment molecules tailoring formulations for distinct cell types. Buffers help control critical parameters like pH during resuspension, dissociation and cryopreservation. Such specialized yet cost-sensitive supplies account for the lion's share of consumables consumption.

Insights, By Application: High Demand for Antibodies, Vaccines, and Recombinant Proteins

The application segment includes biopharmaceutical production, tissue culture & engineering, toxicity testing, drug development, cell & gene therapy, and others. The biopharmaceutical production is expected to hold 29.6% of the market share in 2024. Mass-manufacturing complex biologics such as antibodies, vaccines and recombinant proteins relies heavily on scalable and robust cultivation systems. Regulatory requirements for characterization and quality control also drive significant process development activities employing cell culture workflows. Most blockbuster drugs are recombinant proteins produced from engineered mammalian expression systems. Achieving gram-per-liter titers essential for commercial-scale production demands intensive optimization of cell lines, feed formulations and bioprocess parameters. Widely-used production systems employ Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) and other mammalian cells in stirred-tank, air-lift and perfusion bioreactors handling 100L volumes or more.

Insights, By End User: Extensive Cell Culture Capabilities Drive the Growth of Biopharmaceutical Companies

The end user segment includes biopharmaceutical companies, hospitals & diagnostic laboratories, CMO & CRO, and others. Biopharmaceutical companies contributes the highest share of the cell culture market and is projected to hold 36.3% of the market share in 2024. As the primary developers and manufacturers of cell culture-based products, biopharmaceutical companies comprise the largest end user segment in this market. Whether independently or via contract service providers, these companies leverage extensive cell culture capabilities at various stages across the drug development pipeline. During early research and development, biopharma companies employ cell cultures to identify potential drug targets, assess toxicity and optimize lead candidate selection. Translational medicine initiatives exploring disease pathology mechanisms also rely on primary cell cultures and immortalized cell lines. As programs advance into preclinical and clinical testing, cell-based assays become essential for drug candidate screening, efficacy evaluation and biosimilarity assessment. While Contract Manufacturing Organizations (CMOs), Contract Research Organizations (CROs), and research institutes also utilize cell culture, biopharma end users account for the bulk of demand due to their positioning across the entire R&D and manufacturing value chain. Regulatory expectations of demonstrating product safety and efficacy through non-clinical and clinical data further consolidate biopharmaceutical companies lead in the end user segment.

Regional Insights

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North America has established itself as the leading region in the global cell culture market and is expected to hold 39.7% of the market share in 2024. The presence of top pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in countries like the U.S. has provided a major boost. There is a strong focus on R&D activities related to cell-based research by both private players as well as government institutes. This has led to a massive demand for cell culture equipment, media, and reagents as all new drug development processes now involve extensive cell-based testing. The cell therapy industry is also witnessing rapid growth in the U.S. due to efforts by companies developing new treatment options for chronic diseases. Many global players have set up their cell therapy research centers in North America to gain from the business-friendly environment and access to the talent pool. As more therapies reach the market in the coming years, the North American cell culture market is expected to further strengthen its dominant position.

The Asia Pacific region has emerged as the fastest-growing market for cell culture over the last five years. China, in particular, has emerged as a global force in pharmaceuticals and biologics, with the government focusing on building a robust healthcare ecosystem. Aggressive investments are being made to ramp up domestic R&D and manufacturing capabilities. Countries such as China, India, South Korea, and Singapore are offering attractive incentives to global players to set up facilities. This has led to a surge in infrastructure development for cell-based research. Additionally, the lower costs have prompted many global corporations to outsource certain testing activities to the region. Many biotech startups are also mushrooming with access to risk capital. With its massive population and growing healthcare needs, Asia Pacific's cell culture market is all set to witness exponential growth going forward to meet both the domestic and global demand.

Market Report Scope

Cell Culture Industry News

• On February 7, 2024, 10x Genomics, Inc., a frontrunner in single cell and spatial biology solutions, unveiled GEM-X, the newest iteration of its acclaimed single cell technology. Representing the primary advancement to the chromium framework since the introduction of Next GEM technology in 2019, GEM-X is constructed upon an innovative microfluidic chip design, incorporating cutting-edge technological advancements and refined reagents to ensure unmatched performance and robust reliability.
• On January 24, 2024, Merck & Co., Inc., a prominent science and technology enterprise, announced that its Life Science division has entered into a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Mycenax Biotech, a specialized biologics Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO), with the aim of investigating potential collaboration opportunities for introducing pioneering and scalable bioprocessing solutions to Taiwan and various global markets
• In September 2023, PhenomeX Inc., a company specializing in functional cell biology, revealed that GSK plc, a biopharmaceutical firm, will showcase findings on the SpotLight Human Lambda reagent for the Beacon platform at the 16th annual Conference on Protein Expression in Animal Cells, scheduled to take place in Sitges, Spain, from September 24-28, 2023
• In January 2023, Curate Biosciences, a player in the life sciences sector, announced the official release of its groundbreaking Curate Cell Processing System. As the pioneer in its category, the Curate System yields top-tier starting materials crucial for CAR-T cancer therapy and other cell therapies. Leveraging an exceptionally precise microfluidic approach, it achieves approximately 90% recovery of white blood cells while successfully removing over 90% of red cells and 99% of platelets from leukapheresis blood products obtained from patients. This process results in cells that enhance transduction efficiency for therapeutic manufacturing.

*Definition: The cell culture market involves the various tools, equipment, media, and reagents used to propagate and grow eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells outside of their natural environment. Cells are maintained and grown in carefully controlled sterile laboratory conditions for scientific research, biomanufacturing of biologics and vaccines, toxicology testing, and clinical cell therapy applications. Key products in this multibillion-dollar market include cell culture media, sera, reagents, bioreactors, incubators, centrifuges, and microscopes.

Market Segmentation

•  Product Insights (Revenue, USD BN, 2019 - 2031)
  • Consumables
    • Sera
    • Media
    • Reagents
  • Instruments
    • Culture Systems
    • Cryostorage Equipment
    • Biosafety Equipment
    • Incubators
    • Centrifuges
    • Others
•  Application Insights (Revenue, USD BN, 2019 - 2031)
  • Biopharmaceutical Production
  • Tissue Culture & Engineering
  • Toxicity Testing
  • Drug Development
  • Cell & Gene Therapy
  • Others
•  End User Insights (Revenue, USD BN, 2019 - 2031)
  • Biopharmaceutical Companies
  • Hospitals & Diagnostic Laboratories
  • CMO & CRO
  • Others
• Regional Insights (Revenue, USD BN, 2019 - 2031)
  • North America
    • U.S.
    • Canada
  • Latin America
    • Brazil
    • Argentina
    • Mexico
    • Rest of Latin America
  • Europe
    • Germany
    • U.K.
    • Spain
    • France
    • Italy
    • Russia
    • Rest of Europe
  • Asia Pacific
    • China
    • India
    • Japan
    • Australia
    • South Korea
    • ASEAN
    • Rest of Asia Pacific
  • Middle East
    • GCC Countries
    • Israel
    • Rest of Middle East
  • Africa
    • South Africa
    • North Africa
    • Central Africa
• Key Players Insights
  • Merck KGaA
  • Sartorius AG
  • BioSpherix, Ltd.
  • Cell Culture Company, LLC
  • Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.
  • Danaher Corporation
  • Becton, Dickson and Company
  • Evonik
  • Promocell GmbH
  • Hi-Media Laboratories
  • Sekisui XenoTech LLC
  • Lonza Group
  • Agilent Technologies Inc.
  • Cytiva
  • 300MICRONS GmbH
  • PL BioScience GmbH
  • denovoMATRIX GmbH