US rapidly losing bioscience market share to Asia, finds CiteAb
Less funding being available for research is also having an impact
The latest data from antibody search engine CiteAb, based in Bath, UK, issued this month, suggests that the US has been losing its share of the biosciences market over the past 12 months.
In February 2014 CiteAb released data suggesting that China would soon be claiming the lion’s share of the global bioscience market, overtaking the US within 5–10 years.
But Dr Andrew Chalmers, founder of CiteAb, said the latest data clearly shows that there has been a large spike in the number of Chinese research papers using antibodies over the last 12 months. Equally, the number of US papers has dropped significantly. This data acts as a good indicator of bioscience research activity, he said.
Chalmers added that in 2011 the Royal Society predicted that China would overtake the US in two years, and in 2012 the journal Nature predicted that China would overtake the US by 2014 – CiteAb disagreed with both of these predictions when it issued its report in February 2014.
CiteAb's latest data also highlights increased bioscience activity in India, with the country reporting consistent growth since 2010. India claims to have nearly 1% of the total global market and this is continuing to grow significantly and has contributed to the increase in overall Asian market share.
We’re approaching an equal one-third share of the global market across Europe, the US and Asia
Dr Subhash Gangar, Antibody Development Associate at antibody supplier Novus Biologicals, a biotechnology company based in Littleton, CO in the US, said his company has seen growth in the use of its products in India in recent years, particularly its primary and secondary antibodies, conjugated primary antibodies and ELISA kits.
Gangar said the main research areas for Novus' products in India are cancer research, stress response and toxicology research. Institutes such as the top tier universities of BHU, JNU and Annamalai University and medical organisations such as AIIMS and PGIMER along with a large number of research institutes make up the company's growing Indian market.
Chalmers said CiteAb's data demonstrates that while European market share has remained consistent, the US has reduced rapidly in recent years, and Asian market share has grown.
'This is clearly a major challenge for the many companies in the US that provide services to the bioscience sector – we’re approaching an equal one-third share of the global market across Europe, the US and Asia and this will have implications for the business models and growth strategies of these companies,' he said. 'They’re used to selling to a domestic audience, but more might have to step up their efforts to exploit international markets, and especially Asia.'
In addition to the growth of Asian economies and an increased focus on scientific research by Asian universities, one of the reasons for the shift of market share from the US to Asia could be the reduced funding of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the foremost funder of life science and medical research in the US.
Chalmers said the NIH has lost 22% of its purchasing power since 2003 and Dr Francis Collins, Head of the NIH, added that as a result of funding cuts fewer US students were choosing to go into biomedical research to the detriment of the country’s future in the discipline.
He added: 'With less funding for research, and fewer bioscientists coming through the pipeline, the US faces serious challenges to its long-held top spot in world bioscience research, and will need to make serious investment to protect its future involvement in the sector.'
