Mumbai, (Business Wire India) -- The adoption of microfluidics not only provides pharmaceuticals companies multiple benefits such as improved data quality and economized reagent consumption, but also significantly reduces the time and cost of producing large amounts of biological material, which helps drug developing companies to reduce initial expenses of drug development.

New research from Frost & Sullivan (http://www.ti.frost.com), Advances in Lab-on-Chip and Microfluidics for Drug Discovery and Clinical Diagnostics, finds that there is a paradigm shift in the present healthcare model at a global level from a mere therapeutic to a preventive and predictive model on an individual basis. The result will be effective, personalized, and safe and cost-effective therapy, better diagnosis and treatment outcomes, and patient satisfaction. Enabling this will require a thorough understanding of the pathological processes underlying the human biological system, and technologies such as microfluidics and lab-on-Chip (LOC) can facilitate the process of studying in vivo physiological conditions.

If you are interested in a virtual brochure, which provides manufacturers, end users, and other industry participants an overview of the latest analysis of the Advances in Lab-on-Chip and Microfluidics for Drug Discovery and Clinical Diagnostics, then send an e-mail to Shwetha Thomas/ Nimisha Iyer - Corporate Communications at sthomas@frost.com/ niyer@frost.com with the following information: your full name, company name, title, telephone number, e-mail address, city, state, and country. We will send you the information via email upon receipt of the above information.

Microfluidics and LOC technologies offer advantages such as increased sensitivity, mobility, and efficiency in assays and help multiply the number of tests performed per day in laboratories. The advent of digital microfluidics will tremendously increase potential time and cost savings, and be the strongest driver for the uptake of these technologies.

"Eventually, self-contained devices such as lab-on-chips, lab on card or lab on a CD, with nano-, femto-, or picoliter-reaction chambers will drastically minimize reagent use and make fluid handling operations affordable," notes Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Sangeetha Prabakar "In addition, computer aided drug designing software can reduce the waiting time between designing and experimentation to a day or two, removing problems such as device design prototyping from the drug discovery process."

However, the industry is conservative and hesitant to adopt new technologies. Potential users often wait for a success indicator from the early users, which in turn depends on the readiness of early users to adopt the technology. Besides, microfluidics and LOC still have some technical hurdles and integrating the right technology hardware, electronics, and software will take time.

"Pharmaceutical leviathans need to give the right boost to the lab-on-chip industry by adopting their technology and incorporating it in their drug discovery processes. This will in turn help lab-on-chip manufacturers to lower costs thus assisting in their more wide-spread up-take." observes Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst, Rasika Ramachandran.

"The device developers must justify product costs through marketing campaigns by emphasizing the long-term cost-saving benefits and how it might aid in increasing revenues for the buyers using microfluidics technology," suggests Prabakar.

Overall, microfluidics and LOC technologies are evolving continuously and the ultimate goal of the industry is to provide practical end-user applications. Ongoing technological advances in micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and semiconductor microfabrication methods, polymer science, biosensors, and biomedical engineering are speeding this process. Eventually, the functional superiority of these technologies will overcome cost issues, both in the research and medical sectors.

Advances in Lab-on-Chip and Microfluidics for Drug Discovery and Clinical Diagnostics is part of the Technical Insights Growth Partnership Service. All research services included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants. Interviews with the press are available.

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