Clinical Trial Imaging Services Market Expected to Reach $1.8 Billion by 2027

According to a new report published by Allied Market Research, titled, "Clinical Trial Imaging Services Market by Service Type, End User, and Therapeutic Area: Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2019–2027," the global clinical trial imaging services market was valued at $1.3 billion in 2019, and is expected to reach $1.8 billion by 2027, registering a CAGR of 5.6% from 2019 to 2027. 

Contract research organizations offer a wide variety of services for clinical trials to the sponsors. Similarly, imaging services in clinical trials is also a type of service offered by CROs to sponsor. Thus, these imaging services include management of tasks related to performing medical imaging in clinical trials. In addition, medical imaging is an effective filed of science, which helps in studying the internal organs in a body. It also helps in understanding the effects of a drug on the body. Hence, imaging has become an integral part of the clinical trial process. Sponsors outsource imaging to CROs which offer services such as clinical trial design and consultation services, data management services, and others. In addition, CROs provide these services to biotechnology companies, pharmaceutical companies, medical device companies, and others.

Furthermore, with the use of these services the CROs develop study designs for imaging clinical trials. Similarly, these services help the companies in selection of trial sites, image acquisition, image reading, and others. In addition, clinical trial imaging services are offered for various therapeutic areas such as oncology, endocrinology, cardiology, and others. The major factors such as surge in the need to outsource imaging clinical trials across the globe fuel the growth of the clinical trial imaging services market. Another major factor that contributes toward the growth of the market include increase in adoption of imaging in clinical trials leading to outsourcing of these imaging related services. 

Furthermore, rise in clinical trials due to surge in prevalence of chronic conditions, which require novel treatment option also boosts the growth of the market. Moreover, advancements in the field of medical imaging technology is another major factor that fuels the growth of the market. However, challenges related to integration of imaging in clinical trials restricts the growth of the clinical trial imaging services market. Conversely, increase in awareness toward use of imaging in clinical trials and presence of imaging modality in development offers a lucrative opportunity for the clinical trial imaging services market growth.

The clinical trial imaging services market is segmented on the basis of service type, end user, therapeutic area, and region to provide a detailed assessment of the market. By service type, the market is divided into clinical trial design and consultation services, reading and analytical services, operational imaging services. Project and data management services, and others. By end user, the market is classified into biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, and academic & government research institutes.

By therapeutic area, it is divided into oncology, neurology, endocrinology, cardiology, gastroenterology, and others. By region, the clinical trial imaging services market size is analyzed across North America (U.S., Canada, and Mexico), Europe (Germany, France, UK, Italy, Spain, and rest of Europe), Asia-Pacific (Japan, China, India, Australia, South Korea and rest of Asia-Pacific), and LAMEA (Brazil, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and rest of LAMEA).

Covid-19 Impact On Global Clinical Trial Imaging Services Market

COVID-19 has led to nationwide pandemic across the globe. This in turn has resulted in disruption of every business across various industries. In addition, the pandemic has also affected the clinical trial imaging services industry. For instance, the clinical trial imaging services market has been impacted negatively owing to factors such as unavailability of radiology experts, staff for conducting clinical trials and patients. Furthermore, suspended, cancelled or rescheduled ongoing clinical trials also lead to drop in demand for imaging services offered by contract research organizations. However, contrary to this the COVID-19 outbreak has led to rise in research related to study of SARS-CoV-2 virus which in turn has led to surge in demand for imaging services used in clinical trials for COVID-19. Thus, this has led to positive results in the clinical trial imaging services market. 

On the basis of service type, the project and data management segment held the dominant share in 2019. Furthermore, it is also expected to exhibit the highest growth rate during the forecast period. The growth of this segment is attributable to the high cost associated with performing these tasks in house, which leads to the need to outsource them. 

By end user, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies segment occupied the largest share of clinical trial imaging services market in 2019. Constant change in needs related to clinical trials is another major factor that leads to outsourcing services. For instance, technological advancements which are expensive to acquire and change in regulatory needs are few factors that compel pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to outsource imaging services. Moreover, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are constantly engaged in the development of new therapeutics, which can be immensely expensive leading to a need to outsource.

By therapeutic area, the oncology segment occupied the largest share of clinical trial imaging services market in 2019. The growth of the segment is due to rise in prevalence of cancer, which leads to surge in need for novel and advanced treatment options. This in turn leads to rise in clinical trials, which lead to surge in need for outsourcing services used in trials. Furthermore, the neurology segment is expected to exhibit the fastest growth rate during the forecast period owing to rise in use of imaging in neurology clinical trials 

In 2019, North America accounted for the major share of clinical trial imaging services market size and is expected to continue this trend owing to surge in use of imaging as an endpoint in clinical trials which leads to sponsors outsourcing these services to save cost related to its incorporation. Furthermore, the other major factor, which is the presence of major players such as Parexel International, ERT Clinical, Biospective, Inc. Intrinsic Imaging LLC leads to easy availability of clinical trial imaging service, which in turn boosts the growth of the market in the region.

Key Findings Of The Study 

• By service type, the project and data management services occupied one-thirds share of the global clinical trial imaging services market in 2019
• By end user, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies segment is anticipated to grow with the highest CAGR throughout the forecast period.
• By therapeutic area, the cardiology segment accounted for more than two-fifths share of the clinical trial imaging services market in 2019. 
• By region, Asia-Pacific is anticipated to grow at the highest rate during the analysis period.