Biophotonics market forecast to grow to $133B by 2016

The business of looking at biological functions at the cellular level or even smaller is big. Known as biophotonics - a marriage of photon-based experimental manipulation and advanced optical imaging - the market is growing at approximately 31% annually with worldwide revenues reaching $11.0 billion in 2006.

According to Biophotonics: A Strategic Assessment of Photonics Technologies for Biomedical Applications, the latest research from Kalorama Information, the market will soar to $133.0 billion by 2016 as the techniques become more of a modus operandi in the fields of pharmaceutical discovery and development; molecular biology research, such as proteomics and genomics; histology/cytology research; and clinical research, including oncology and virology.

The market for biophotonics technology and products is part of the larger photonics and optoelectronics sector, and interplay between the markets keeps the technology advancing at a fast pace. Report findings show that key to growth in biophotonic technology is its ability to augment and even replace many current technologies in research, in vitro diagnostics, imaging and even therapeutics. The speed and performance of biophotonic approaches is expected to induce rapid replacement of existing products as well as technology upgrades to existing biophotonic systems.