Chromatography-An Inimitable Seperation Technique
Chromatography is a separation process of mixture of components using two phases based on the relative affinity and distribution of the mixture components towards a stationary phase and a mobile phase. This technique is being widely used in the industries like Pharma & Biopharma industries, food industries, oil & petroleum industries, agricultural & chemical industries, environmental applications and in other industries for qualitative and quantitative analysis, identification.
According to IQ4I estimation, the Chromatography global market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.0% to reach $18,077.7 million by 2024. North American region held the largest market share whereas Asia-Pacific region is projected to grow with a strong CAGR. The major factors driving the Chromatography market includes rapid rise in biologics, growing importance of chromatography tests in drug approvals, new international cGMP & cGDP certification for pharmaceutical excipients, technological advancements in chromatography instruments and reagents, increased R & D spending , expanding emerging markets, Increased use of chromatography in diverse applications, growing food safety concerns. However, high cost & maintenance of advanced equipment, mature product segments & pricing pressure and Stringent regulations may hinder the growth of chromatography market. Chromatography market is segmented based on the Technology into Liquid Chromatography (LC), Gas Chromatography (GC), Supercritical Fluid Chromatography (SFC) and Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC). There is an increasing focus on the use of HPLC and UHPLC techniques by academics and biopharmaceutical companies, increasing usage of LC-MS in the pharmaceutical industry to provide quantitative measurements of active drugs and metabolites. As a result, Liquid Chromatography is holding the major share and expected to grow at a high CAGR for next 7 years.
Chromatography is being used in many industries wherein Biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries have taken the largest share of the market. Major Pharma companies are investing a substantial amount of R&D budgets to develop biologics and related manufacturing facilities. In 2017, out of the 46 new molecule entities (NMEs) approved by FDA, 12 were biologics and several of them with potential to reach blockbuster drug status. With increasing focus of pharma and Bio-pharma companies on biologics and biosimilars, the need for the development of new processes for the optimized production of end products is increasing. Chromatography technique plays an important role in detection and quantitation of the impurities produced by pharma industries at the various stages of drug development, manufacturing, quality control and assurance.
Furthermore, Chromatography technique can detect the presence of impurities like PCBs (Poly Chlorinated Biphenyl) in pesticides and also can detect DDT presence in groundwater. It can determine Chloro-phenols in water & soil, Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH), unleaded gasoline, dioxins, dibenzofurans, organo-chlorine pesticides, herbicides, phenols, halogenated pesticides, sulphur in air. Correspondingly, it finds application in chemical industry, for the analysis of inorganic gases & aromatic solvents. The presence of unwanted chemicals in the agricultural products can also be determined by HPLC method. It is being extensively used in food industry for identification of spoilage in foods, for determination of the amount of organic acids in foods. Column chromatography is used in the food industry to identify and quantify spoilage indicators like pyruvic acid in milk and to assess the total organic acid profile of milk and measure the lactose content in the milk.
With expanding need of these analytical instruments in the pharma industries, lots of advancements are being made in both upstream and downstream process. Recent advances in HPLC are particle technology where Both HPLC and UHPLC continue to benefit from advances in particle technology. In HPLC instruments which adapted particle technology, instruments have fused-core, solid-core and core-shell particles—consisting of a solid core fused to a porous outer layer—develop efficiency by decreasing the diffusion path length of molecules travelling throughout the column and also permit better separations at lower flow rates and pressures. 2D liquid chromatography, Centrifugal Partition Chromatography (CPC) are few more innovations in chromatography followed by advancements in the column packing materials with high-throughput, high resolution and high-sensitivity. Currently, Single-Use Systems (SUS) technologies are replacing multiple use columns, resins and buffers and provide the process repeatability. As there are no suitable substitutes for the chromatography, it will continue to be the best choice of separation technique by industries. By reducing cost, with many innovations in technologies and by providing high-quality equipment, chromatography can rule the analytical instruments market in future.
The Chromatography global market is consolidated with the presence of top ten major companies and they occupy the share more than 65%. Major players in the Chromatography global market include Agilent Technologies Inc., (U.S.), Bio-Rad Laboratories (U.S.), Bruker Corporation (U.S.), Danaher Corporation (U.S.), GE Healthcare (U.S.), Merck KGaA (Germany), PerkinElmer Inc., (U.S.), Shimadzu Corporation (Japan), ThermoFisher Scientific (U.S.) and Waters Corporation (U.S.).