The estimated value of the Indian analytical instruments market for 2009 is $940 million. Among the nine categories of analytical technique cited by IBO in its forecast issue (see IBO 1/15/08), separation instrumentation (initial system, aftermarket, and service sales for HPLC, GC, ion chromatography, low pressure LC, capillary electrophoresis and other techniques) and life science instrumentation (initial systems, aftermarket and service sales for sequencers, synthesizers, nucleic acid amplification, electrophoresis, microarrays, informatics, molecular biology preparation kits, biosensors, cell analysis and animal imaging) are expected to experience the fastest growth this year and next. The growth of these product segments are, in part, based on the relatively new market, and the expansion of India’s pharmaceutical and biotech sectors.

The largest technology segment within India’s analytical instrument market is separations. Over the past year, the separations instrumentation market has grown nearly 30%, resulting in a 2007 value of $183 million. Together, HPLC and GC make up nearly the entire separations market. The HPLC market is currently twice the value of the GC market, and is expected to grow at a compound growth rate (CGR) of more than double GC’s CAR in the next four years. HPLC is the fastest growing segment of the separations market with an estimated growth rate of almost 30% for 2009. HPLC currently makes up more than 60% of initial systems separations sales in India. HPLC instrument sales also drive an extensive aftermarket, particularly for solvents and columns. Including aftermarket products, HPLC represents more than half of India’s separations instrumentation market.

Although GC, which is the second largest market for separations instruments in India, is expected to be the slowest growing segment among separations techniques in the coming years, the Indian market is growing faster in the country than the average growth worldwide. Ion chromatography (IC), the next fastest growing separations technique in India, was valued at a sixth of the Indian GC market’s worth in 2007. Nevertheless, it is set to grow 25% in 2009.

The aftermarket segment currently makes up a large part of the separations market in India, and nearly equals the share held by initial systems due to the fact that separations instruments rely heavily on consumables such as columns. The aftermarket segment also has a robust outlook for 2009, when it is estimated to grow by more than 25%.

At present, the Indian separations market is heavily supported by the pharmaceutical industry, which represented nearly 40% of demand in 2007. In 2009, pharmaceutical industry demand for separations instruments is expected to increase by more than 25%. Among the other industries in India that purchase separations instrumentation, the fastest growing is biotechnology. It is expected that India will continue its course in becoming a major player in the drug market, which will cause the biotechnology market for separation instruments to grow an estimated 45% in 2009.

The second fastest growing segment of analytical techniques in the Indian market is life science instrumentation—a market that only really started to develop in 2002. The leading market within this technology segment, at present, is nucleic acid amplification (PCR), with initial PCR system sales composed of both real-time PCR systems and thermal cyclers. Cell analysis, the second largest life science instrumentation market, is made up of many subsegments, including electroporation and lipofection, the largest of which is flow cytometry. Flow cytometry is used in both the research and clinical sectors. For 2009, the projected growth rate of the cell analysis market in India is nearly 50%.

In addition to its rapid growth, the life science instrument market is also set to experience the largest increase in value compared to all other technology segments over the next year. The animal imaging and microarray technology segments are estimated to be the fastest growers within the life science market. The Indian microarray market, which was worth only $1 million in 2002, totaled $8 million in 2007. Furthermore, sales of microarray technology are expected to increase over 40% in 2009. Animal imaging sales totaled $2 million in 2007, and a growth rate of around 50% is estimated for 2009. Cell analysis and molecular biology preparation kits are also experiencing a period of rapid growth. Nevertheless, there are some segments within the Indian life science instrumentation market, such as electrophoresis and biosensors, with growth rates in the single digits. For electrophoresis, this is due to low pricing, yet the segment made up the majority of life science instruments exported from India in 2007.

The growth in the life science instrument aftermarket in India is faster than initial systems, and makes up nearly 50% of the total life science instrument market. Although currently accounting for a small share of the market, service products are also expected to experience large increases over a four-year timeframe.

The largest consumers of life science instruments in India are R&D laboratories, which currently account for three quarters of the market. Analytical service laboratories, which are hired by independent testing laboratories and some government laboratories, make up nearly 25% of the market.