The market for tests using cardiac biomarkers, including cardiac markers used for heart attack detection, and cholesterol and coagulation tests, surpassed $2 billion in 2015. These are the latest findings of Kalorama Information, (New York, NY, USA), an independent medical market research firm.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the number one cause of death globally and kill approximately 2.6 million people each year in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, U.K., and the U.S.

Biomarkers are biological or biochemical molecules, or genetic changes, or other characteristics that can be measured, and that indicate or predict a condition, risk, or likely response. They can be used for predicting disease risk, diagnosis, predicting prognosis, identifying appropriate therapy for an individual, and monitoring disease or for return of a disease.

Over the past few years, traditional markers such as CK-MB, troponin, and myoglobin used in acute care and tests such as those for cholesterol to evaluate risk have been replaced by tests for cardiac markers such as myeloperoxidase (MPO) brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and proBNP. Other tests such as high sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP), high sensitive troponin, homocysteine, Fatty Acid Binding Protein (FABP), Glycogen Phosphorylase isoenzyme BB (GPBB), urinary albumin, S-100 protein and hemoglobin A1c (hbA1c) are now also becoming a part of the risk evaluation tool box. New markers are being developed and new cardiac panels combining markers of inflammation, ischemia, plaque instability, and necrosis are likely to emerge.

The market for CVD tests is concentrated in the developed countries, which account for most of the product sales, while the growing middle class in Latin America, India, Asia Pacific and the Middle East is driving the remaining growth. Efforts being made by diagnostic companies to provide platforms for quick and accurate diagnoses of patients are opening up opportunities in the cardiac marker market.

“Driven by disease incidence, cardiac markers and cardiovascular biomarkers are in demand,” said Bruce Carlson, Publisher of Kalorama Information. “Physicians use cardiac markers in two ways: acute care to diagnose a cardiac event in a hospital emergency room or chronic care to evaluate the risk of a cardiovascular event occurring and to monitor patients with a cardiovascular disease."

Currently a number of companies develop or market cardiac markers and cardiovascular biomarkers, including Abbott Laboratories (Abbott Park, IL, USA), Beckman Coulter, Inc. (Fullerton, CA, USA), bioMérieux SA (Marcy l'Etoile, France), Quest Diagnostics, Inc. (Teterboro, NJ, USA), Roche Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland), and Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics (Erlangen, Germany).