Market Overview

In consideration of the financial results of major clinical testing center companies and business conditions of small- and medium-sized centers, size of the domestic clinical laboratory testing service market in FY2022 is estimated at 697 billion yen, down 10.1% from the preceding fiscal year (based on the sales of clinical testing service providers). 

As coronavirus cases continued to soar in FY2022 just like in FY2021, the number of PCR tests (nucleic acid detection tests) presumably exceeded that of the previous fiscal year.

Nevertheless, as in-hospital testing system, including PCR tests, has been set in place at quite a few medical institutions, the number of PCR tests outsourced to contractors declined. In addition, along with the reduction of medical remuneration points for these types of tests, the unit price of contracts dropped significantly, thus diminishing the size of the outsourced clinical testing service market.

Because of the shrinkage of contract PCR tests for COVID-19, size of the domestic clinical laboratory service market decreased in FY2022.

*The market size basically does not include voluntary PCR testing (done at the expenses of recipients).

Noteworthy Topics

Development of Business Alliance

Under the situation where Japan decides to downgrade the legal status of the novel coronavirus to ‘Class 5’ in May 2023 and rapid antigen test (qualitative antigen test) become a mainstream of clinical tool, the demand for PCR tests for novel coronavirus is projected to decrease hereafter.

With a sharp drop in demand for Covid-19 tests as a repercussion of 'special demand', business environment of clinical laboratory services is intensifying increasingly. In fact, alliance between peers have been witnessed already. Going forward, clinical laboratory testing service providers are expected to propel a variety of attempts to improve operational efficiency.

Future Outlook

Although the special demand for Covid-19 PCR tests materialized between FY2020 and FY2022, the number of new cases of infection is decreasing, and it is fair to say that contractors cannot expect further expansion anymore.

Size of the clinical laboratory testing service market for FY2023 is forecasted to drop as in the preceding fiscal year. After FY2024, the portion of contracts for COVID-19-related tests is likely to dissipate, and the market will return to the pre-pandemic state where the market shows marginally upward tendency mainly with conventional testing items.

In a mid-term perspective, however, the clinical laboratory testing service market is likely to level off as various digital technologies will lead to sharing of test data, which diminishes the number of clinical tests.

Research Outline