The laboratory automation market consists of four technology segments: liquid handling, microplate readers, robotics and management informatics. Collectively, these technology categories account for approximately 7% of the analytical and life science instrumentation market.

The lab automation market is a fragmented market, with the sales of the top five companies accounting for about 40% of the market. Tecan led the market with approximately an 11% share in 2011. Thermo Fisher Scientific and PerkinElmer each accounted for 9% of the market, while Danaher and Eppendorf accounted for 6% and 5% of the market, respectively.

Demand for lab automation techniques was quite strong last year compared with what the sector had been experiencing. Fueled by stimulus funding and continued expansion in Asia Pacific, the market increased nearly 7%. IBO expects this momentum to continue into 2012, with the market growing 5.4% to nearly $3.0 billion.

The pharmaceutical and biotech industries account for the lion’s share of the end-users for lab automation. While drug discovery remains an important segment, the market for downstream applications, such as drug development and manufacturing, has become a strong focus of pharmaceutical and biotech companies. However, demand from other industry segments, such as CROs and clinical research labs, has been growing rapidly and are significant segments of the market as well.

Laboratory automation market growth is driven by initial systems and service, which accounted for 53% and 18% of total sales in 2011. These segments are forecast to lead sales growth in 2012, increasing 6.0% and 5.2%, respectively.

The liquid handling market includes manual (handheld) pipettes and automated workstations and will account for 43.8% of the lab automation market this year. Eppendorf and Mettler-Toledo lead the handheld pipette market. Tecan and Beckman Coulter, now part of Danaher (see IBO 2/15/11), are the leaders in the automated workstation market. IBO forecasts liquid handling sales to increase nearly 5% in 2012, driven by demand from CROs and clinical labs. Demand from life science research labs, particularly for low-volume liquid handling systems, is also expected to fuel growth.

The microplate readers market, which accounted for about 30% of the market in 2011, experienced robust growth last year. This solid performance is forecast to carry into 2012. Albeit not as strong as last year’s growth, this market is still expected to be the fastest growing among all lab automation techniques, increasing 6.5% in 2012. Demand is expected to be particularly strong for multimode detection platforms. Molecular Devices, part of Danaher, and PerkinElmer are the leading vendors of microplate readers.

The market for robotics accounted for nearly 11% of the lab automation market last year. Sales are forecast to increase 5.4% in 2012. This market is buoyed by demand from a resurgent pharmaceutical and biotech market, particularly as these industries continue to offshore R&D and production laboratories. As a result, Asia Pacific and Latin America are expected to drive growth for this market. North America and Japan are expected to experience solid growth as well.

Management informatics software includes laboratory information management systems (LIMS), electronic lab notebooks (ELN), laboratory execution systems (LES) and scientific data management systems (SDMS). Overall, this market experienced a lackluster year in 2011, with only a modest increase in sales. IBO expects this segment’s sales to strengthen in 2012, increasing 5.1%, led by solid growth from the ELN/LES market. Demand for LIMS is expected to be strong as well.

 Lab Automation Market Leaders

 Microplate Readers         PerkinElmer, Danaher 

 Liquid Handling   

    Automatic               Tecan, Danaher

    Manual                  Eppendorf, Mettler-Toledo

 Robotics                   Tecan, Freeslate

 LIMS, ELN, SDMS            LabWare, Thermo Fisher Scientific

 Pie Chart: 2011 Lab Automation Market by Product Type

 Initial Systems       53%

 Aftermarket           29%

 Service               18%

 Pie Chart: 2011 Lab Automation Suppliers’ Market Shares

 Tecan           11%

 Thermo           9%

 PerkinElmer      9%

 Danaher          6%

 Eppendorf        5%

 Other           60%

 Laboratory Automation 2011–2012

                         2011 Market Share      2012 Growth Rate

 Liquid Handling                 43.8%                 4.9%

 Microplate Readers              29.5%                 6.5%

 LIMS, ELN, SDMS                 16.1%                 5.1%

 Robotics                        10.5%                 5.4%

 Total                          100.0%                 5.4%

 Bar Graph: 2010–2013 Total Laboratory Automation Market

                    2010      2011      2012       2013

 $ Millions        2,635     2,816     2,969      3,119