In 2025, the analytical and life science instrumentation industry weathered challenges such as funding constraints in the early-stage biotech and US academic and government sectors, as well as changes in tariff policies. Nonetheless, Strategic Directions International (SDi) predicts in its 2026 “Global Assessment Report” that the industry will overcome these obstacles by meeting demand in select geographical markets, such as India, and in certain pharmaceutical sectors.

In May 2026, SDi published the 2026 “Global Assessment” report, which provides an overview of the market conditions for the laboratory analytical and life science instrumentation industry in 2025. In addition, the report provides market data forecasts for 2026 through 2030. Specifically, the report provides a summary of laboratory technologies, market developments, and forecasts by end-markets, region, product type, and other categories.

Regarding the instrumentation technologies in the report, SDi divides them into 10 main categories (see table below) and 80 sub-categories. The report also outlines three types of analytical and life science instrument companies mentioned: “Broad-Based,” “Multi-Product,” and “Focused.” Furthermore, the report ranks the top 50 companies, including companies such as Bio-Rad Laboratories, Illumina, Waters, and more. Additionally, SDi provides a quantitative breakdown of end-markets for the analytical and life science instrumentation industry.

 

 

Five-Year Market Demand

The report values the laboratory analytical and life science instrumentation industry at more than $80.0 billion in 2025 and forecasts a low single-digit CAGR through 2030. SDi cites public funding uncertainty, macroeconomic volatility, and geopolitical conflict as influences in its CAGR prediction. However, SDi believes the market will stabilize in the long term.

Life Science Instrumentation

As in the last Global Report, SDi predicts the life science instrumentation sector will remain the largest market segment between 2025 and 2030 and deliver a mid-single-digit CAGR through 2030. According to the report, the life science instrumentation aftermarket will be the primary driver, as instrument demand may continue to struggle in the near term due to early-stage biotech funding challenges and government funding changes. However, SDi believes a demand recovery is imminent, with select technologies such as flow cytometry leading the charge.

End-market wise, SDi anticipates the pharmaceutical and biotech market to be the leading driver thanks to late-stage pharmaceutical applications and M&A activity in the biotech sector. On a geographical basis, as a result of its continuing expansion in pharmaceutical R&D and other pharma-related applications, India is forecast to post significant growth in the life science instrumentation sector. SDi considers BD Biosciences, Illumina, and Thermo Fisher Scientific to be market leaders in life science techniques.

 

 

Mass Spectrometry

Though SDi forecasts the life science instrumentation sector to have the largest market presence in the laboratory analytical and life science instrumentation industry, SDi projects the mass spectrometry (MS) sector will post the fastest growth through 2030 despite having a smaller market presence than the life science instrumentation market by comparison. Despite withstanding market headwinds in the public sector in 2025, SDi believes that between 2025 and 2030 the MS sector will benefit from demand in the applied, pharmaceutical and biotech sectors, as well as in select countries in the Asia Pacific region.

Instrument wise, quadrupole LC-MS is foreseen to record the fastest growth among the eight MS technology categories outlined in the report (see table below) because of pharma-related applications. Lastly, SDi notes that the MS market in 2025 was led by Agilent Technologies, SCIEX (Danaher), and Thermo Fisher Scientific, among others.

 

Conclusion

Between 2025 and 2030, SDi’s 2026 “Global Assessment Report” predicts that the analytical and life science instrumentation industry will still have to endure ongoing challenges such as geopolitical conflicts, funding uncertainty, and more. However, SDi expects a gradual market recovery through 2030, led by expanding needs in high-growth markets, AI integration, and recovering demand for instrumentation.