New York, June 26, 2008 / Marketwire - Companion diagnostics, the pairing of a drug with a testing product to identify patients most likely to benefit from the drug, and thus enhancing its efficacy, is seen as an important growth strategy for pharmaceutical companies as well as the diagnostic companies they will partner with. Yet according to Kalorama Informations new report, "Companion Diagnostics Markets (A Realistic Assessment of the Opportunities, Challenges, Key Players and Important Trends in Personalized Medicine)," this market will take longer to realize than many experts predict.

Companion diagnostics is a pathway to personalized medicine, a key trend in healthcare which is giving the diagnostics field a huge boost in terms of publicity, revenue potential and investment interest. Though drug companies have resisted the idea of tests to target therapeutics, fearing reduced product sales, several factors are contributing to a change in attitude. These include a need for improved clinical trials and the realization that effective, targeted therapeutics can enjoy higher sales than general-market-focused, trial-and-error therapeutics with higher price-points for improved therapeutic efficacy.

Still, Kalorama is conservative in its near-term outlook for the companion diagnostics market, estimating it at $27 million in 2007 and growing to five times that size over the next ten years. Currently the market consists of testing that is more ‘ad hoc’ and ‘associated’ with therapeutic intervention than actually based on solid molecular data.

"The development in parallel, of a companion diagnostic with a therapeutic is dependent on the success of the therapeutics clinical trials, and thats more risk than diagnostic companies normally have to undertake," said Kenneth Krul, PhD, the author of the study. "Other challenges include the cost of genetic analysis and privacy concerns among patients. While we see a need for companion diagnostics in niche therapeutics, reviving orphan drug markets, possibly a royalty business model… it is likely to be a smaller market and a longer term outlook than some in the industry realize."

Kalorama Informations report "Companion Diagnostics Markets (A Realistic Assessment of the Opportunities, Challenges, Key Players and Important Trends in Personalized Medicine)," covers the market applications of current and future technology to the development of companion diagnostics with an emphasis on both pharmacogenomics and pharmacogenetics, and forecasts through 2018. .