CRISPR TECHNOLOGY MARKET ANALYSIS

Market Challenges And Opportunities

Global CRISPR Technology Market Drivers:

Increasing number of ongoing clinical trials across the globe is expected to augment the growth of the global CRISPR technology market over the forecast period. For instance, in March 2021, scientists at the UC San Francisco (University of California, San Francisco), UC Berkeley, and UCLA (the University of California, Los Angeles) received the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for jointly launching an early phase, first-in-human clinical trial of a CRISPR gene correction therapy in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) by using the patient’s own blood-forming stem cells.

Increasing development of novel therapeutics is expected to drive growth of the global CRISPR technology market over the forecast period. For instance, with the increasing disease burden, the demand for safe and effective therapeutics is also increasing with rapid pace. In December 2019, Cyrus Biotechnology, Inc., and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have embarked on a scientific collaboration to optimize CRISPR for use in developing novel therapeutics. CRISPR allows for the highly specific and rapid modification of DNA in a genome, which can dramatically accelerate the drug discovery process.

Global CRISPR Technology Market Opportunities:

Outbreak of COVID-19 across the globe is expected to offer significant growth opportunities for players in the CRISPR technology market. For instance, CRISPR-Cas technology brings promises to diagnose and treat infectious diseases such as COVID-19. In May 2020, Sherlock Biosciences received Emergency Use Authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its Sherlock CRISPR SARS-CoV-2 kit, used to detect COVID-19 virus. Sherlock CRISPR SARS-CoV-2 kit could provide results in approximately one hour, a timeframe that was much lower than other tests available in the market at that time.

Increasing government and private funding is expected to offer lucrative growth opportunities for players in the CRISPR technology market. For instance, genome editing is a promising technology that could offer new treatments for diseases, but challenges remain. To help address them, in October 2019, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded 24 additional grants (totaling around US$ 86 million) to researchers across the United States and Canada through the Somatic Cell Genome Editing Program. This brings total number of projects supported to 45 and total funding to around $190 million over six years, pending available funds.

• High costs of CRISPR
• Ethical concerns related to genetic research

Global CRISPR Technology Market Restraints:

High costs of CRISPR is expected to hamper growth of the global CRISPR technology market. For instance, the costs of CRISPR-based therapies remain exorbitant at the moment, with price tags exceeding US$ 1 million per treatment. Novartis has priced the gene therapy at $ 2 million per treatment. CRISPR has enormous clinical potential, but it comes at a high cost. Moreover, CRISPR medicines for large groups of patients are likely to be prohibitively expensive.

Ethical concerns related to genetic research are expected to hamper the growth of the CRISPR technology market. For instance, several ethical issues are raised when genomics research is conducted on populations that are characterized by lower average income and literacy levels. Thus, it is important that such issues are appropriately addressed in such research. The National Human Genome Research Institute has also discussed the ethical concerns of genome editing.