The pharmaceutical industry faces significant challenges during drug discovery and manufacturing. The process of drug designing involves clinical trials, quality control, and downstream, which is time consuming. However, the adoption of advanced laboratory automation technology has revolutionized the pharmaceutical industry. Lab automation has gone beyond liquid handling robotics, including cutting-edge technology to facilitate screening, processing, drug sample management, and manufacturing and supply chain.
Smart instruments are behind lab automation, incorporating several features, including cloud-based analysis that helps to save and share data automatically. The shift to laboratory automation helps in real-time data analysis, reducing the time of clinical trials and manufacturing drugs at a large scale. Furthermore, the demand for medicinal drugs has increased post-pandemic, further becoming the reason for the growth of lab automation. The global lab automation market is estimated to be worth $5.5 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow at compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.3% during the forecast period, according to Roots Analysis. Automated sampling systems offer various additional benefits including real-time data monitoring, reduction in deviations by around 65% and increase in the overall productivity up to 80%. Additionally, lab automation minimizes the risk of human errors while maintaining data accuracy and traceability.
Lab Automation Trends Overlook
Lab automation refers to the integration of automated technologies into pharmaceutical laboratories to enable new and improved processes. Currently, researchers face pressure to improve drug quality, throughput and efficiency. Their manpower and resources are stretched to the maximum limit. Typically, laboratory tasks such as sample preparation, liquid handling, testing, and designing are time consuming and are prone to errors.
However, as automated technology advances, complex drug-designing processes can be automated. In fact, automated software solutions help to eliminate repetitive task, such as liquid handling and sample preparation. The prime reason for implementing a lab automation system in clinical laboratories is to facilitate the research process and handle complex laboratory tasks in various applications such as microbiology, biotechnology, and clinical chemistry.
The lab automation software and technology help to regulate drug discovery, manufacturing, and controlling supply chain processes. The introduction of a laboratory automation system allows easier cell expansion, cultivation, and monitoring and increases turn-around times.
Due to this reason, automated technology is an important requirement in pharmaceutical laboratories to meet the high demand for drugs. Furthermore, the rising demand for R&D processes in the pharmaceutical sector increases the lab automation market size.
The laboratory automation market is estimated to be worth around $5.5 billion in 2023. However, with continuous advancement in lab automation, the lab automation system market is expected to increase at a compound CAGR of 10% during the forecast period 2023-2035.
The Benefits of Lab Automation System
The laboratory automation replaces the manual workforce and increases throughput. Whether it is an automatic aliquoting machine or complete lab automation, technological solutions can be a game changer for pharmaceutical laboratories.
§ Reproducibility- Lab automation has the potential to increase result volume, reduce handler-induced variability, and minimize the risk of contamination. The use of lab automation solutions offers a wide range of control and reduces pre-analytic errors such as misplacing samples, mislabeling, and wrong media selection—resulting in increasing reproducibility.
§ Data Accuracy- Data accuracy is a major cause of concern in laboratories. Lab automation has significantly improved data accuracy due to the incorporation of machine learning algorithms. Automated software includes machine learning that has improved data evaluation with higher accuracy. For example, automated echocardiogram analysis helps to classify a range of pathogens accurately.
§ Safety- Lab automation helps to reduce the risk of contamination with pathogenic samples, dangerous chemicals, and repetitive strain injury.
Laboratory Automation System Latest Innovation News
The lab automation market is one of the fastest-growing domains in the pharmaceutical sector. As of now, around 350 companies emphasize manufacturing lab automation systems. Currently, around 50% of the lab automation software solution manufacturers are focusing on designing automated liquid handling systems to reduce errors in the pre-analytical stage.
The key pharmaceutical industrial players, such as Hudson Robotics Inc., Danaher Corporation, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Anton Paar, Beckman Coulter, Leuze, ERWEKA, Pall Corporation, Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, PerkinElmer, Roche Diagnostics, Siemens Healthineers and SYSTAG., are expanding their clientele across various countries to support lab automation market growth.
In addition, several pharmaceutical leaders have launched multiple lab automated systems to streamline research and clinical procedures, some of them are outlined below.
§ In March 2022, Biosero, INC. (the leading developer of lab automation solutions and coordinated scientific discoveries) announced the launch of multiple automated products and features in Green Button Go Software Suite company. These advanced lab automation products help to streamline production and help customers generate quality results from automated sampling and other products ranging from operation-spanning labs to workstations.
§ In March 2022, Beckman Coulter Life Sciences, one of the top life sciences lab automation and innovation companies, introduced the CellMek SPS. This is a powerful solution for data management and sample preparation in clinical flow cytometry. The fully automated sampling systems provide on-demand processing of handling multiple samples easily and expand their sampling capabilities.
§ In April 2022, Strateos, Inc., the pioneer in the development of lab automation software and remote access laboratories for life science research, announced the availability of automated, integrated solutions for small molecule drug discovery programs seeking accelerated testing and data analyzing processes.
Lab Automation Market Growth: Current Market Landscape
The lab automation market is one of the fastest growing domains in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sector. Currently, there are around 350 companies that have capabilities to produce lab automation systems at large scale. Most of the producers of lab automation systems are presently concentrating on automated liquid handling systems because it reduces the chance of human errors that are likely to occur during the pre-analytical stage of diagnostics.
Recently, Hamilton’s Microlab® STAR™ Liquid Handling System has been awarded the Good Design Award of 2022 by The European Center for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design. Hamilton has integrated functions, ease of use, and flexibility in their newly launched liquid handling system.
The highest percentage of revenue is credited to the latest technological progression and involvement of automated systems presented by key players in the laboratory automation market. Furthermore, the increasing automated laboratory systems due to lower risk of human errors and contamination has boosted lab automation market growth, expected to grow at a compound CAGR rate of 9.3%
Demand for Laboratory Automated Workstations Is Increasing
The lab automation market’s overall revenues are expected to grow due to the increasing demand for automated workstations within the laboratory-integrated solution. As clinical diagnostic research and testing become difficult, there will be an increase in demand for automated monitoring, advanced imaging, and cell detection systems. The increasing demand for lab automation devices and software provides an opportunity for manufacturers to launch advanced solutions to meet laboratory demands.
BioMerieux is one of the key laboratory automation companies that market WASPLab®, an automated platform, and integrated lab optimization that offers flexible reading and automated specimen processing solutions. Furthermore, the PhenoMATRIX™ incorporated Colibri™ colony selection and embedded AI that significantly helped in streamlining workflow.
Laboratory Automation System Market Trends and Recent Developments
The laboratory automation market is being reshaped with advanced technology. Notably, there are several developments have been taking place in the lab automation sector, some of which we’ve outlined below.
§ In July 2023, Elecsys® HCV Duo, a fully automated immunoassay system, was launched by Roche Diagnostics in India for the detection of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) antigen and antibody status from a serum sample or human plasma.
§ In August 2023, Abbott announced that the FDA had cleared Alinity® h-series, which is an automated hematology analyzer used to run blood counts.
§ In July 2023, Beckman Coulter Diagnostic received FDA clearance for DxC 500 AU, which is an automated chemistry analyzer to improve its clinical chemistry and demonstrate innovation in the in-vitro diagnostic industry.
Key Regions of Lab Automation in Drug Discovery
Laboratory automation software and devices become an integral part of the experiment process in the pharmaceutical industry. The lab automation has been divided into three stages including; pre-analytical, analytical, and post-analytical stages.
The drug discovery marketplace for lab automation is divided into regions and equipment categories (such as robotic arms, automated liquid handlers, automated storage, automated plate handlers, retrieval systems (AS/RS), software, and analyzers).
On the other hand, the key regions of lab automation are:
§ North America
§ Western Europe
§ Asia Pacific
§ Eastern Europe
§ Japan
§ Middle East and South Africa
Future Trends in Lab Automation
Automation may not be a one-size fit solution to fix all the challenges faced by research and development laboratories. However, lab automation brings enormous benefits to streamline workflow, reduces clinical trial processes, and drug designing time, helping the industry focus on innovation. The key trends further contributed to the lab automation growth.
§ The introduction of AI in pharmaceutical companies accelerated the drug development and designing process. The automation solution helps to address various challenges faced by companies in manufacturing, optimization and drugs post-launch strategies.
§ Big Data & analytics in the pharmaceutical industry helps to analyze large volumes of sampling data during drug development and designing processes. The advancement in automation analytical techniques helps to collect data in real-time. Moreover, the introduction of pharmaceutical analytics techniques helps to streamline all forms of medical data, including medical imaging, patient records, and more, leading to lab automation market growth.
§ A lot of research is underway for designing advanced lab automation software, such as 3D Bioprinters that print cells and tissues in the future. Bioprinters in the pharmaceutical industry have several applications in genetic engineering, drug development, and regenerative medicines. Furthermore, advancement in lab automation software allows the development of physiology-dependent medical formulations.
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