In recent years, cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases have emerged as the leading causes of deaths, across the world. Therefore, to address the increasing death count and healthcare economic burden, globally, there has been a series of attempts over years to develop novel diagnostic and treatment technologies.
Since most of the conventional procedures can only treat the discernible symptoms of a disease, therefore the healthcare industry is currently focusing on developing technologies that aim at identifying the root cause of the disease and treating the disease accordingly. The growing adoption of precision medicine, along with the introduction and approval of technologies such as next-generation sequencing and biomarker assays, has propelled the transition from conventional to advanced technologies in the medical industry.
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic tests enable consumers to get information related to their ancestry, health and wellness, and nutrition and fitness without any medical prescription. These genetic tests help in understanding health-related risk factors and the probability of occurrence of genetic diseases in an individual. BIS Research recently published a market intelligence report titled “Global Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing (DTC-GT) Market – Analysis and Forecast (2019-2028),” analyzing the growth of this emerging direct-to-consumer genetic testing (DTC-GT) market.
Based on the report published by BIS Research, the global DTC-GT market was valued at $824.1 million in 2018 and is projected to reach $6,364.5 million by 2028. Increasing awareness about the benefits of DTC genetic tests, growing adoption of personalized medicine, biomarkers, and sequencing technologies, as well as substantial investments in the discussed technologies are the key factors leveraging the growth of the global DTC-GT market.
Several companies are investing in the DTC-GT market and are focusing on developing more precise genomic tools and expanding the application area of the market. For instance, Ancestry.com LLC, a leading market player, uses genealogy-based tests to provide consumers with information on ethnicity, genetic traits, ancestry origins, and relationship.
Another company, 23andMe Inc., offers its consumers services such as ancestry, wellness, career status, and trait reports. The company started these services in 2015 with the launch of a Personal Genome Service (PGS).
To attain a strong position in the market, both start-ups and established companies are adopting strategies such as collaborations, partnerships, and product approvals. Amongst these, product approval as a strategy is helping the market players to expand their product offerings and thus explore the opportunities in the market. Further, strategies such as partnerships and sale of genetic tests through different platforms are also being widely adopted in the DTC-GT market.
Despite high expected growth, factors such as the high chances of errors in DTC genetic tests and high cost associated with them act as challenges in the DTC-GT market. However, with advancements in the field of pharmacogenomics and nutrigenomics, increasing focus on microbiome, and growing need for personalized and specific treatments and medication the market is expected to witness stable growth in the coming future.