The global Label-Free Detection market is projected to reach US$1.3 billion by 2025, driven by growing drug R&D, rising competitive pressure to reduce cost of drug development and the resulting need for cost-effective and efficient screening technologies. Traditional label-based assays are beset with drawbacks such as high cost associated with label preparation; lower levels of sensitivity and accuracy as measurements are made indirectly using a labeled reactant; risk of certain antigen/antibody reactions not being detected; requires multiple steps and is time consuming; and tendency to modify the physicochemical or binding properties making accurate drug characterization difficult. In this regard, label-free assays for biochemical and cell-based drug discovery is growing in importance due to the many benefits offered such as ability to identify difficult target classes, better insights offered into drug binding kinetics and drug residence time; highly sensitive detection of small molecules, proteins and cells; simple assay procedure; less potential for false positive/negatives; eliminates labelling & reagent costs; aids in high-throughput, independent screening of whole cells; provides new insights into compound action and helps devise better optimization strategies; increased sensitivity and specificity; more accurate quantification of biological responses, among others. All of these benefits are helping replace traditional techniques like radioactive assays, enzyme-labelled assays (ELISA assays), fluorescent labeled assays, luminescent labeled assays, and Chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA) with label-free options.

Few of the major trends influencing growth in the market include growing population, rising disease burden and the need for new generation drugs and therapies; growing pressure on pharmaceutical companies to strengthen their drug pipelines against the backdrop of patent expiry, competition from generics and reduction in profits/revenues; increased government investment support for life sciences research to develop effective, safe and affordable drugs; growing interest in genomics research and proteomics; growing production of recombinant therapeutic proteins; expanding pharmaceutical contract research outsourcing and new opportunities in Asia-Pacific; growing market for biosimilars and increased need for label-free detection as an analytical tool to demonstrate biosimilarity;  rising incidence of food allergy and the ensuing demand for label-free detection of allergens in food; and strong opportunity for label free detection in cancer diagnosis and characterization. The United States and Europe represent large markets worldwide with a combined share of 64.8%. China ranks as the fastest growing market with a 9.7% CAGR over the analysis period supported by the globalization of the countrys life sciences sector. The Chinese governments dedicated support of the industry has resulted in China developing innovative drug molecules for the domestic healthcare market. The country also plans to export Chinese-made pharmaceuticals. The recent approval of countrys first WHO-prequalified vaccine brightens the outlook for Chinese-made pharmaceuticals. The expected growth of the countrys life sciences sector and pharmaceutical R&D spending which is poised to reach over US$30 billion by 2020, bodes well for the adoption and growth of label-free detection. Asia-Pacific excluding China follows next with a 9.5% CAGR led by India, and other Southeast Asian countries.