Nano-enabled drug discovery solutions will generate revenues of $1.3 billion in 2009

According to a new report by NanoMarkets, an industry consultancy based here, nano-enabled drug discovery solutions will generate revenues of $1.3 billion in 2009 and grow to $2.5 billion in 2012.

The firm projects that labs-on-a-chip and arrays will offer the largest opportunities with nanoparticulate-based solutions also showing significant growth. The report titled, "The Impact of Nanotechnology in Drug Discovery: Global Developments, Market Analysis and Future Prospects" is now shipping to clients.

NanoMarkets' new 218-page report provides an in-depth analysis of all the drivers, restraints, challenges, regulatory issues and government funding policies that impact nano-enabled drug discovery, along with profiles of the regulatory and funding environments for this kind of technology in 20 major countries. This report also provides eight-year forecasts that break out the market by key applications segments and product types and it offers profiles of 30 firms already active in this space.

Key Insights:

NanoMarkets' research indicates that nanotechnology will provide tangible benefits to the drug discovery process through:

•  Improved understanding of chemicals at the cellular/molecular level
•  Improved identification and validation of target proteins and drugs
•  Increased throughput
•  Reduced time for the identification of new drugs
•  Reduced amount of precious reagents required to carry out screening of potential drugs
•  Improved visualization of drug interactions

NanoMarkets says that the impact of nano-enabled drug discovery is expected to be both broad and deep, affecting numerous areas of the drug discovery process. The new report predicts that by 2009 19 percent of nano- enabled drug discovery revenues will come from the control and analysis of cells, while another 13 percent will come from DNA/RNA sizing, electropheroresis and quantitation. Genotyping will account for another 11 percent of revenues and high-throughput screening will take another 10 percent.

Nanotechnology has already enabled new formulations for drugs -- for example, the FDA-approved Abraxane from American Pharmaceuticals, which has indications for the treatment of metastable breast cancers. Other drugs that are in R&D pipeline or in regulatory approval stage are those developed by NanoHorizons for the treatment of skin disorders and infections.

The new NanoMarkets' report goes on to claim that the companies that are in the best position to benefit from the move towards nano-enabled solutions in drug discovery are the major microfluidics and lab-on-chip companies. Such companies include Aclara, Agilent, Caliper, Cepheid, CombiMatrix, Eksigent, Gyros, Nanogen and Nanostream. NanoMarkets also says that Quantum Dot Corp. is likely to fare well as it holds several key international patents on semiconducting nanocrystal technology, as well as having established relationships with GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Genentech, where Qdots are being used for high-throughput screening. NanoMarkets sees opportunities for self-assembly firms such as 3DM and C Sixty in the future because they are offering new solutions, not just for drug discovery, but also for drug delivery and diseases prevention.

http://www.nanomarkets.net