Organ-On-Chip Market

Market Overview

The global organ-on-chip market size was valued at USD 40.17 million in 2022. It is expected to reach USD 448.92 million by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 30.76% during the forecast period (2023–2031).

The organ-on-chip market comprises companies (organizations, sole proprietors, and partnerships) that sell the organs-on-chips they produce for research in personalized medicine, toxicity testing, and drug development. Organs-on-chips (OOCs) are small plastic gadgets with biocompatible microfluidic chambers that house numerous live human cells in a 3D culture to mimic various physiological functions of body organs. A promising substitute for animal models is organs-on-chips that replicate the physiology of human organs at the cellular level.

Market Dynamics

Global Organ-On-Chip Market Drivers:

Requirement for Other Testing Methods

Animal testing costs a tremendous sum of money and results in the deaths of many animals. Because conventional animal models frequently do not accurately mimic human pathophysiology, these clinical trials frequently fail to predict human responses. Animal experimentation has traditionally been viewed as cruel, expensive, and largely irrelevant to human beings. According to data released by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, 3.52 million procedures were performed on animals in the UK in 2018. (PETA). In addition, a 2017 report by the US Department of Agriculture estimated that approximately 792,168 animals were held for experiments or used in them nationwide. In 2018, more than 3.9 million animals in Canada were subjected to research.

In addition, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) 2020 report states that in the United States, it is estimated that over 100 million animals suffer or pass away every year as a result of university experiments, chemical, drug, food, and cosmetic testing, as well as exercises for medical training. Due to the availability of new and alternative testing technologies, this number is predicted to decline. Over the anticipated period, this is anticipated to accelerate market growth.

Launch of New Products and Technological Advancements

Recent R&D initiatives have resulted in advancements in tissue engineering and microfluidics technology, giving the organ-on-chip (OoC) technology significant added benefits to obtain a more accurate understanding of what occurs in humans. By creating a specific mechanical context that matches the shape, surface pattern, and stiffness of organ-specific microenvironments, the OoC technology enables the reconstitution of the organ's microarchitecture. In addition to ensuring the long-term viability of healthy tissues, the precise microfluidic flow control enables the efficient circulation of the immune system's cells, antibodies, biochemical signaling molecules, and metabolites. It can also gather tiny secretion volumes for analysis.

Continuous perfusion and mechanical stress enable the control of spatiotemporal chemical gradients and mechanical cues to study the impact of the microenvironment on cells, supposedly making dynamic tissue models far more relevant than the traditional static cell cultures. In addition, the Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom, opened a new research center for organ-on-chip in January 2020, revolutionizing medical research and drug development. Therefore, introducing all these new products and technological developments will spur market expansion.

Global Organ-On-Chip Market Restraints:

Complex Models for Organ on Chip

Although the OoC technology is a promising one, it is a challenging process to create an OOC. The main difficulties are replicating the intricate architectural structure of human tissues and organs using in vitro techniques in a miniaturized form and arranging them in interconnected systems to recreate the interactions between human tissues and organs. Most researchers also need help with the OoC's behaviors and how to interpret their findings. On the other hand, researchers are working to integrate different sensors into a stand-alone OoC system. Monitoring various behaviors, including pH, oxygen, and temperature, may benefit from this. For in vitro cell culture, microfluidic chips have proven to be appealing platforms. However, the prices dorise in tandem with the complexity of OoC models. This acts as a barrier to this technology's adoption over existing technologies.

Furthermore, the need for qualified professionals is another issue brought on by the complexity of these models. The data gathered from the OoC must be understood and analyzed by qualified professionals. For studying dynamic morphogenetic processes, such as blood vessel formation and the migration of immune cells and cancer cells through the interstitium, simpler devices with a single cell type grown in 3D ECM gels are more beneficial. But only some businesses have experience managing OoC because of how new this technology is. Consequently, market growth is anticipated to be constrained by the complexity and disadvantages of organ-on-chip technology over the forecast period.

Global Organ-On-Chip Market Opportunities:

Organ-On-Chip Technologies to Hasten Transition to Personalized Medicine

Organ-on-chip technologies are anticipated to hasten the transition to personalized medicine, which aims to give patients the ability to select the best medication at the appropriate dosage. To achieve personalized precision medicine in the future, many laboratories are integrating human-derived cells with organs-on-chip systems that contain embedded sensors. Therefore, it is anticipated that organs-on-chips will enable the development of cheaper drugs more quickly and with less animal testing. Growing real organs from stem cells has also made significant strides in recent years. Also anticipated is support for organ-on-a-chip technology. It will take some time before this method can be used to grow customized organs for transplant patients.

On the other hand, it is already possible to use it to grow human tissue for organ-on-a-chip models. Additionally, organ-on-chip technology is not just limited to the liver, lung, and heart; much attention has been paid recently to expanding the organ's applications and sites with organ-on-chip technology. These gadgets are becoming more and more prevalent in hospitals, clinics, and research facilities, which helps to produce more detailed research and treatments. Future drug design will increasingly rely on this technology due to its widespread use in numerous industries. As a result, the adoption of organ-on-chip models is anticipated to grow over time, despite the ongoing need for animal models. As a result, there should be fewer animal-based assays in various applications.

Regional Analysis

North America Dominates the Global Market

The global organ-on-chip market is segmented by region: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Rest of the World.

North America is the most significant revenue contributor and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 31.99% during the forecast period. The United States is one of the leading markets for Organ-on-Chip, mainly because of the availability of a wide range of goods and services provided by major players, including the custom design of new chips with organ arrangements and an increase in toxicological testing of chemicals on the various types of organ cells. The major market players in the organ-on-chip market-based in the United States include Emulate Inc., AxoSim Inc., Organovo, and Tara Biosystems. Public and private institutions also pour much money into their research into various applications. Five research teams have been chosen by the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) to advance the study of space radiation and look into protective measures for long-duration space travel using human tissue/organ models (organ-on-chip models), which could allow the space program to tailor protective measures for each astronaut individually.

Europe is expected to grow at a CAGR of 30.49% during the forecast period. Organ-on-a-chip research is being conducted in large numbers in Germany. This region has seen the emergence of numerous start-ups and spin-out businesses specializing in organ-on-a-chip technologies. These businesses are participating in partnerships and agreements, propelling the organs-on-chip market. To advance organ-on-a-chip technology in Europe, Fraunhofer IGB, a German company, joined the global consortium in 2017. As a result, organ-on-a-chip technology's social and economic effects are hastened. In addition to offering new drug discovery platforms, the technology provides alternatives to traditional animal testing and is ready to deliver personalized medicine and safety pharmacology applications. Therefore, based on the activities of market participants, it is anticipated that the demand for Organ-on-Chip (OOC) will rise, and the market will grow due to basic biomedical research and the cosmetics industry.

The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry in April 2017 gave organ-on-chip platform technology funding. The Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) recently received a JPY 3 billion grant for its Organ-on-Chip project. Japan's research facilities also concentrate on advancing technology and accelerating market expansion. Body-on-a-chip technology, which can test a drug's side effects on human cells, was developed in August 2017 by researchers at Kyoto University's Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences. A similar organ-on-a-chip technology was reported in January 2018 by researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science (IIS), the University of Tokyo, the National Center for Scientific Research, and the National Institute of Health and Medical Research to study blood vessel formation and drugs that target this occurrence. The technology mimics a human blood vessel and demonstrates how other capillaries develop from a single vessel (parent vessel) in response to the right biochemical signaling cues. The Japanese organ-on-chip market is anticipated to grow accelerated throughout the forecast period due to the above factors, including the support of both the public and private sectors, ongoing research, and significant market players.

The African, South American, and Middle Eastern nations are included in the rest of the world category. A growing elderly population, the prevalence of chronic diseases, which is further fueling the demand for the development of novel therapeutic options, and an increase in the pace of clinical studies are the main factors driving the market in these regions. Organ-on-chip technology plays a significant role in these developments by removing current approval process delays.

Segmental Analysis

The global organ-on-chip market is segmented by organ type, application, and end-user.

Based on organ type, the global organ-on-chip market is bifurcated into the liver, heart, and lung.

The lung segment is the highest contributor to the market and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 33.63% during the forecast period. Thanks to lung-on-chip technology, a sophisticated, three-dimensional model of a functioning human lung are present on a microchip. This device, composed of cells from human blood vessels and lungs, can simulate an inflammatory response from microbial pathogens and forecast the absorption of airborne nanoparticles. The apparatus can also be used to test the safety and effectiveness of new medications, the effects of environmental toxins, and the absorption of aerosolized therapeutics.

Additionally, it is anticipated that it will replace animal testing. Airway-on-chip, one of the newest products on the market, is like the original lung chip, except it is lined with human bronchial epithelial cells rather than alveolar cells. Researchers used this chip to simulate asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in 2016. They even attached it to a machine that burns cigarettes and exhales and inhales smoke to affect a smoker to study the effects of smoking on the bronchial epithelium. Although the lung-on-chip technology has already demonstrated its value, it may also need to be improved, perhaps with muscle cells, to help test the effects of any treatments on the lungs. This could lead to further market expansion.

Drug metabolism occurs primarily in the liver in the human body. As a result, a variety of diseases, as well as drug-induced toxicity, can affect it. The chemical of interest is almost always tested on the liver in toxicological studies (both basic and clinical trials for drug development). Sadly, predictions made by in-use models (such as in vitro or animal models) frequently do not match what is subsequently observed in humans precisely. One of the main factors that could halt the clinical stage of drug development and exacerbate the lengthy delays of these drug tests is liver toxicity, also known as drug-induced liver injury, or DILI.

Based on the application, the global organ-on-chip market is bifurcated into drug discovery and toxicology research.

The drug discovery segment owns the highest market and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 32.61% during the forecast period. Due to the rising costs and decreasing effectiveness of drug research and development, the pharmaceutical industry faces numerous difficulties. Therefore, new testing methods are desperately needed to produce accurate drug safety and effectiveness predictions. To increase the likelihood that clinical trials will be successful, Organ-on-Chip (OoC) has the potential to function as a new enabling platform for early identification and validation of the efficacy, safety, and durability of potential targets. OoC models are ultimately crucial in streamlining the clinical trial procedure. For instance, improvements in stem cell engineering could be incorporated into OoC technology to create personalized models to forecast the toxicity and efficacy of a drug for a particular patient. This could result in more effective human trials with significantly less preclinical testing needed.

Additionally, OoC technology is used for novel phenotypic screening assays and cost-effective in-vitro models for hit-to-lead and lead optimization that can more accurately predict drug compounds' efficacy, toxicity, and human pharmacokinetics. Organ-on-a-chip technology can be beneficial in advancing and supporting research into rare diseases, categorizing medical practices, and nanomedicine, all generating industry interest.

The study of chemical substances' harmful effects on living things and their environment is known as toxicology. It is growing due to new laws and regulations governing drug safety and chemical testing. OoC offers a fresh perspective on toxicology research because it outperforms an in vitro model in predicting the toxicity of substances. For example, liver-on-a-chip models recognize the metabolites produced during compound breakdown and explore any potential secondary toxic effects. As the brain differs from other organs in the human body regarding structure and function, brain models are also helpful in toxicological testing. Therefore, when researching possible toxic effects on the brain of drugs that may be administered to children or adolescents, brain models can be helpful. As a result, OoC is anticipated to provide a better understanding of the harmful health effects of toxicants with technological advancements, which could impact the market's expansion.

Based on the end-user, the global organ-on-chip market is bifurcated into pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and academic and research institutes.

The pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies segment is the highest contributor to the market and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 32.28% during the forecast period. This technology has the fantastic potential to predict side effects and the effectiveness of medications and biological products for pharmaceutical and biotech companies. According to Hwang et al.'s analysis of 640 phase 3 trials with novel therapeutics published in 2018 and titled "Factors associated with clinical trials that fail and opportunities for improving the likelihood of success: A review," 54% of these trials failed in clinical development, with 57% of those failures being attributable to insufficient efficacy. Thus, rising drug approval failure rates enable the development of a comprehensive biology data set for the assessment of novel therapies and drugs and to guarantee the safety of novel treatments, where OoC plays a significant role. Many pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are using this technology to speed up the discovery and development of new drugs. One of the key drivers of the market's expansion is the increased use of Organ-on-Chip technology for drug discovery by businesses.

Many research projects are underway worldwide, which can be attributed to the increased public awareness of organs-on-chips and the major corporations' increased focus on R&D activities. This factor will likely positively impact this market segment's growth over the forecast period. One of the leading research institutions specializing in organ-on-chip technologies is Harvard University's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. Together with a multidisciplinary team of collaborators, they have created microchips that mimic the microarchitecture and functions of living human organs, including the blood-brain barrier, kidney, skin, and intestine. The elements above suggest that the market under study is anticipated to experience significant growth.

Recent Developments

• July 2022- CN Bio opened new lab facilities to increase its capacity for Organ-on-a-Chip contract research services.
• September 2022- Emulate announceda new gene therapy application enabling Organ-on-a-Chip technology to accelerate the development of treatments for genetic diseases.