November 25, 2019
Biocompare, the leading digital marketplace for the life science industry, has released its biennial antibody market report. The 2019 Antibody Market Report taps into the experiences and expertise of close to 700 scientist stakeholders to shed light on antibody usage, applications, and preferences, as well as the drivers that influence how researchers select antibodies that will enable them to accelerate their research.
Historically, basic research applications have been the primary objectives for using commercial research antibodies. In the 2019 survey, the top three primary objectives of respondents were basic research related and included marker identification (64.7%), pathway analysis (60.8%), and marker quantification (58.7%). However, procuring antibodies for diagnostic applications is increasing. About 27% of 2019 respondents report that diagnostic applications are among their primary objectives for using antibodies. This was an increase from 18% of respondents in the 2017 survey.
Customers may have a hard time deciding which antibody is their best choice on their own. However, dialogue between an antibody supplier’s technical support staff and the customer can help the customer identify which antibodies may fit their purpose. In the survey, the importance of technical support when deciding which antibody to buy had a mean rating of 3.81 on a scale of 1 to 5. This ranking was higher than other important factors such as the availability of protocols, the availability of trial sizes, and the delivery time, underscoring the importance of the human and collaborative factor in the antibody purchasing process.
A key trend observed in the 2019 survey is that the research-use-only sector of the antibody marketplace is finding its research goals transitioning into translational science goals at an accelerated pace compared to the past generations of scientists. In this regard, implementing formal antibody validation and reproducibility programs has come just in time to lead us into the future of the antibody landscape.
The survey also asked respondents to weigh in on which supplier they deemed to have the best antibody specificity, the best antibody reproducibility, the best customer service, the best overall website experience, the best packaging, the best quality of technical data presented on website, the best target selection, and the best technical support. It also asked which supplier they are most familiar with, which supplier they prefer for 25 antibody categories (e.g., cell signaling/signal transduction, apoptosis/tumor suppressor, cytokines/chemokines, etc.), and which supplier is their overall most preferred. A list of Biocompare’s antibody award winners can be found here.
For more information on the 2019 Biocompare Antibody Market Report, click here.