European Markets for Clinical Laboratory Products

The European clinical diagnostic testing products market has undergone substantial modifications due to changes in healthcare budgets and methods of healthcare delivery. These changes include the need to maintain the quality of healthcare in the face of reduced resources, and the economic unification of Europe that is acting to normalize pricing between countries. For the purposes of this report, the European market refers to the fifteen countries that currently make up the European Union (EU)—Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain,
Sweden, and the United Kingdom (U.K.)—and the three countries, Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland, which are members of the European Free Trade Association. This report focuses on the countries of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K., as they account for approximately three-fourths of both the EU population and the cumulative gross domestic product.

Suppliers are facing an increasingly challenging environment in Europe as customer requirements are altered. Although cost containment is forcing change in the industry, the demands of physicians for more rapidly available test results are also resulting in restructuring of testing processes. Additionally, diagnostic testing is increasingly being viewed by healthcare officials as part of the total cost of healthcare delivery, with point-of-care (POC) testing and other new strategies being investigated as ways to
improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of healthcare.

Factors leading to changes in the European healthcare market include the aging of the population, which has led to an increased incidence of age-related diseases such as cardiovascular disorders and cancer; the crisis in healthcare funding, which is expected to worsen as the number of older individuals in the population increases relative to the number of younger, working-age individuals; the high cost of developing and implementing new therapeutic technologies; and the growth in minimally-invasive medical technologies, particularly those that allow an increasing proportion of healthcare to be delivered in less expensive, nonhospital settings.