Automated Liquid Handling Market Expected to Reach $2.4 Billion by 2030

According to a new report published by Allied Market Research, titled, “Automated Liquid Handling Market," The automated liquid handling market was valued at $960.98 million in 2020, and is estimated to reach $2.4 Billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 9.4% from 2021 to 2030.

Automated liquid handling (ALH), a class of medical devices that dispenses a selected quantity of reagents, samples and other liquids to a designated container. Automated liquid handling instruments are used in laboratories for drug discovery, forensics, materials science, molecular biology, clinical research, and pharmaceutical development.

The major factors of automated liquid handling market growth are technological advancements associated with ALH systems, rise in adoption of ALH in pharmaceutical companies & R&D institutes, development of R&D infrastructure in emerging economies, and advantages of ALH systems over manual pipetting. Moreover, key advantages such as rise in productivity, efficiency, and enhanced accuracy are the key automated liquid handling market trends. However, high costs of instruments and complex operability of advanced ALH systems are expected to restrain the market growth during the forecast period. Conversely, untapped potential of emerging markets offers lucrative growth opportunities for the market.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) was discovered in late December, 2019, in Hubei province of Wuhan city in China. The disease is caused by a virus, namely, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which is transmitted among humans. Testing for COVID-19 has been an ongoing bottleneck in the fight against COVID-19. Overall, the impact of COVID-19 on the automated liquid handling industry was recorded to be fairly positive. This was attributed to increase in customizations of automated liquid handling systems by different automated liquid handling suppliers specifically for work related to coronavirus. For instance, in April 2020, Hamilton Company and Zymo Research Corporation announced that they have collaborated and launched MagEx STARlet assay-ready workstation with Quick-DNA/RNA Viral MagBead Kit protocol to extract pure DNA/RNA from the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. The jointly developed automated solution offers significant advantages compared to manual processing of samples via traditional time-consuming methods such as spin columns.

The automated liquid handling market is segmented on the basis of type, modality, procedure, end user, and region. On the basis of type, the market is divided into standalone, individual benchtop workstation, multi-instrument system, and others. By modality, it is bifurcated into fixed tips and disposable tips. By procedure, it is segmented into PCR-set-up, serial dilution, high-throughput screening, cell culture, whole genome amplification, plate reformatting, array printing, and others. On the basis of end user, it is classified into biotechnology & pharmaceutical companies, contract research organizations, and academic & government research institutes. Region wise, the market has been analyzed across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA.

On the basis of type, the standalone ALH type segment accounted for the largest share in the automated liquid handling market size, owing to lower cost and higher usage among different research and clinical settings. However, the multi-instrument ALH system segment is expected to show fastest market growth during the forecast period, owing to rise in adoption of technologically advanced multi-instrument ALH.

By modality, the disposable tips type segment accounted for the largest share in the market, owing to lower cost and higher usage among different research and clinical settings. However, the fixed tip segment is expected to show fastest market growth during the forecast period, owing to rise in adoption of technologically advanced ALH instruments.

By procedure, the serial dilution procedure segment is anticipated to dominate the market during the forecast period, owing to increase in adoption of ALH within laboratories for serial dilution. However, the array printing segment is expected to show significant market growth during the forecast period.

On the basis of end user, the biotechnology & pharmaceutical companies segment dominates the market and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.9% during the forecast period. Increase in use and application of ALH systems to carry out high throughput screening in the biotechnology & pharmaceutical industry is expected to boost the market growth.

North America accounted for major share of the global automated liquid handling market share in 2020, and is expected to remain dominant throughout the forecast period. This is attributed to rise in adoption of ALH system, wide availability of advanced ALH, large presence of pharmaceutical & biotech companies and R&D laboratories, and large presence of trained professionals. However, Asia-Pacific is expected to experience the highest growth rate during the forecast period. Moreover, Japan and China are expected to grow at high CAGR in Asia-Pacific automated liquid handling market majorly due to rise in awareness related to ALH systems, developing R&D sector, and developing infrastructure of research and clinical settings.