SAFC Supply Solutions has launched a new materials sourcing offering, designed to meet the medical diagnostics sector’s demand for raw materials that are compliant with international regulatory standards.
Ed Roullard, SAFC Supply Solutions’ VP of sales and marketing, explained that the service is intended to act as a one-stop-shop for customers seeking molecular-grade raw materials, custom oligonucleoitde synthesis, PCR products and the firm’s Proligo reagents raw materials line.
Roullard told in-PharmaTechnologist: “The medical diagnostics market is expected to grow significantly over the next few years.” He predicted that, within this, molecular diagnostics alone will expand between 15% and 20%.
He also suggested that, while at present only a small number of drug companies have in-house capabilities, “over time medical diagnostics will become a part of pharma”. Roullard predicted that having such capacity will be standard practice within five years.
Roullard went on to say that the scope of SAFC’s offering differentiates it from its competitors, which was an opinion reiterated in a press release by George Crowell, manager of the firm’s diagnostics unit.
Crowell suggested that: “The breadth of this offering is now unrivalled in our industry. Additionally, we can help mitigate risk in our customers’ supply chain as all our products are produced in ISO 9001 certified facilities.”
The medical diagnostics market has grown significantly in recent years, driven by both the emerging personalised therapy sector, where accurate diagnosis of a patient’s disease is critical to selecting the correct treatment, and by the need to improve traditional clinical diagnostics.
The medical trials industy has also helped boost the market through its increasing reliance on diagnostics kits to determine the suitability, or otherwise, of potential trial subjects.
As a result companies as disparate as Abbott Laboratories, Beckman Coulter and Affymetrix have significantly expanded their respective ranges of diagnostic products, placing a greater strain on the supply of raw materials and, SAFC hopes, creating demand for its new offering.