Organ-on-a-Chip Global Market estimated to be worth $193,316.9 thousand by 2026
Organ-on-a-chip (OOC) is a multidisciplinary area combining fields of chemical, biological and material science and offers various advantages such as low reagent usage, limited expenses on reagents, rapid response and ability to control micro-environmental parameters and simulate the physiological environment of human organs such as brain, heart, liver, and other vital tissues. In 2016, World Economic Forum named OOC as one of the top ten emerging technologies, since then, the area has received a lot of attention as this technology has potential to be an alternative for current gold standards (cell cultures and animal models) employed in various stages of drug discovery and development and other areas of biology research.
According to IQ4I research analysis, the Organ-on-a-Chip global market is estimated to to grow at a high double digit CAGR from 2019 to 2026 to reach $193,316.9 thousand by 2026. The factors driving the market are rising use of organ-on-a-chip in early detection of drug toxicity, increasing demand for personalized medicine, emergence of OOC as an alternative to animal testing, the significant increase in research funding and venture capital investments for the development of different types of organ-on-a-chips, whereas, factors such as technical uncertainty within the pharma companies, the lack of scaling and standardization, biological and technical challenges involved are restraining the market growth.
The Organ-on-a-Chip market is classified into product, application, material, end-user, and geography. The organ-on-a-chip product market is further classified into chips & services. The services segment accounted for the largest revenue in 2019 and is expected growing at a strong double digit CAGR of from 2019 to 2026.
The chips market is further segmented into liver, lung, kidney, tumor, multiple-organ-on-a-chip, and others. Among these, liver-on-a-chip accounted for the largest revenue in 2019. The tumor-on-a-chip segment is expected to grow at a strong CAGR from 2019 to 2026. The factors driving the market are rising use of Liver-on-a-chip in drug discovery as a disease model (NASH) and also in toxicity screening of drugs, cosmetics, environmental pollutants, etc. The growth is also attributed to the increased interest shown by regulatory agencies, by the top pharma companies, other government organizations and venture capitalists for the development of the technology, whereas, factors such as lack of scaling and standards, the uncertainty of how regulatory bodies will adapt to technological challenges as OOC is in its infancy stage, the challenge to explore sample associated data, the requirement of ethical clarity, need for the establishment of well understood single mixed-cell models using universal media combined with the flow and supporting matrix are restraining the market growth.
The application market is segmented into drug discovery, toxicity screening, and personalized medicine. Among these, toxicity screening accounted for the largest revenue in 2019. Factors such as, increased failure of drugs at late stage of development due to toxicity issues have lead to the accelerated use of organ-on-a-chip involving human-derived cells to check their toxic effects. Further, the engagement of various chips in environmental toxicity testing, cosmetic toxicity is driving the growth of the market. The personalized medicine segment is expected to grow at a strong CAGR from 2019 to 2026.
The materials market is segmented into PDMS, polymers, glass, and silicon, among these, Polymers commanded the largest revenue in 2019, factors such as, ease of access and inexpensiveness, optically transparent, biocompatible, inert, rigidity are favoring their usage.
The end-user market is segmented into Pharma & Biotech, Academic & research institutes, and other industries. Among the end-users, Pharma & Biotech accounted for the largest revenue of in 2019 The Academics & Research Institutes segment is expected to grow with a strong CAGR from 2019 to 2026. This is attributed to the increased research activities taking place in academics and research institutes which is attributed to the increased funding from government and non-government organizations.
Some of the companies are coming up with new technological advancements to maintain their leadership status in the Organ-on-a-Chip, for example, Mimetas BV launched assay ready product line: OrganoPlate Caco-2 which serves customer to receive a fully quality-controlled, ready-to-use tissue model to ADME, safety, toxicology and mechanistic studies for drug development, but also in the food and dairy industry.
Several OOC models developed by researchers need testing to increase their reliability for rapid adoption i.e. the need to test adaptability of OOC for various applications without further testing or development in terms of translating benchtop assays to a readymade test format. This requires a thorough understanding of industry needs in terms of data requirements and the anticipation and elimination of these critical gaps will result in products that are commercially successful. Thus, collaboration between OOC companies and assay developers might increase the application of OOCs.
Various technological advances such as human-on-a-chip and organoid-on-a-chip are being explored by companies; the human-on-a-chip technology is being developed to replace the traditional drug screening on cell cultures and animal models, for instance, in October 2019, MIMETAS and Hubrecht Organoid Technology (HUB) entered into a strategic collaboration to market organoid models on a Chip. The agreement includes a license to MIMETAS to market HUB Organoids in an assay ready format, as well as a collaborative effort to develop disease-specific models. Similarly, In March 2020, scientists at MIT created an organ-on-a-chip to explore the role of circulating immune cells in ulcerative colitis and other inflammatory diseases which also led to the discovery that a metabolic byproduct generated by bacteria living in the human gut plays an important role under these inflammatory conditions.
Considering the attractiveness of the market various venture capitals and private equity companies and funding the development of organ-on-a-chip start-ups. For instance, in February 2019, StemoniX has secured $14.4 million in funding from Brightstone VC to commercialize its 2D and 3D neural and heart-based organ-on-a-chip platforms for drug development for high throughput screening of drug efficacy and toxicity. Similarly, in March 2020, CN Bio received close to $9 million (€7.98M) from Chinese investors to strengthen its US market and expand European activities.
Based on geography, the market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Rest of the world. Among these, the North America region dominated the Organ-on-a-Chip accounted for the largest revenue in 2019 and growing at double CAGR from 2019 to 2026. This is due to the accelerated technological advancements in analytical and informatics field, presence of major players, increased funding from both private and government agencies, growing awareness about benefits of Organ-on-a-Chip in development of personalized medicine, presence advanced research institutes with specialized technologies, pharma biotech companies, government & private agencies concentrating on accelerating Organ-on-a-Chip research. The Asia-Pacific region is the fastest-growing region with a strong CAGR from 2019 to 2026. This might be attributed to increasing government funding towards Organ-on-a-Chip research, and the emergence of this region as the manufacturing hub for biologics drugs.
The Organ-On-A-Chip market is consolidated with the top 9 players occupying 83.2% of the market share and the remaining 16.8% of the market is occupied by other players. The key players in Organ-On-A-Chip Global Market include Mimetas BV (The Netherlands), Emulate, Inc. (U.S), TissUse GmbH (Germany), Hesperos, Inc. (U.S.), Insphero AG. (Switzerland), CN Bio Innovations Ltd (U.K.), Nortis Inc (U.S.), AlveoliX AG (Switzerland), Organovo, Inc. (U.S.) and others. Acquisition, expansion and product launch are some of the strategies opted by the companies for maintaining their leadership position in this market. For example, InSphero AG launched 3D Insight Human Liver Disease Discovery Platform for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). The platform enables scalable in vitro drug efficacy assessment, screening, combinatorial testing as well as the study of complex NASH pathophysiology.