For now, Next Generation Sequencing continues to be a complementary technology, finds Frost & Sullivan's Transformational Health team

SANTA CLARA, California, Jan. 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Newer capabilities enabled by Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) are expanding opportunities for the platform in clinical applications. While the proliferation of sequencing technologies has flooded the market with several solutions, their success will depend on supportive bioinformatics tools that analyze and interpret biological information, competitive pricing, access and reimbursement.

"NGS is still being used as a complementary technology rather than a standalone one, indicating evolving protocols," said Transformational Health Senior Industry Analyst Divyaa Ravishankar. "Potential NGS-based tests garnering attention include those for oncology-germ line mutation and somatic mutation. Rare genetic disease testing and pharmacogenomic testing are the other areas of interest for the clinical application of NGS."

2016 Global Survey on Clinical Next-generation Sequencing, part of Frost & Sullivan's  Life Sciences Growth Partnership Service program, analyzes the market based on an online survey of a carefully selected group.

A total of 69 decision makers qualified for the survey and represent NGS users from the clinical community. The insight details outsourcing needs, top clinical NGS service providers, interest areas of clinical NGS, purchase patterns for instruments and reagents, predominant methods, platforms for NGS clinical data interpretation, and most popular instruments and brands, among other factors. Key findings include:

• 51.6% respondents showed a keen interest in using NGS technology to develop assays for certain infectious diseases. On further analysis within the infectious disease testing area, meningitis emerged as a top cited area followed by respiratory diseases-bacterial and Sexually Transmitted Diseases.

• About 83% of the respondents indicated that NGS is still being used as a complementary technology. This is not expected to change in the next 3 years time frame until the technology matures.

• 81.8% of the respondents indicated that they are currently performing bio informatics data analysis in-house with a very few members indicating outsourcing to a third party vendor.

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"Respondents show a vivid interest in developing clinical NGS-based tests for infectious disease testing, particularly for meningitis, respiratory panel, and sexually transmitted diseases," added Ravishankar. "In terms of genetic elements, the highest interest is in cancer biomarkers and studying oncogenes, followed by tumor suppressor genes and microRNAs."

Ambry Genetics, GeneDx, Invitae, and Baylor Miraca are emerging as companies to watch in this space, besides big US hospitals and reference laboratories such as ARUP, LabCorp and Quest, which received the highest rating in terms of brand familiarity.

"Most respondents indicated that they preferred outright purchases from the manufacturer for instruments and reagents," noted Ravishankar. "Factors that will help the market take off include lowering overall pricing, consumables in particular; faster and deeper data analysis; and specific reimbursement, coverage, and coding measures."

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2016 Global Survey on Clinical Next-generation Sequencing
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