Challenging the status quo with Molecular Syndromic Testing

Syndromic Multiplex testing is a still new technology that will change the nature of infectious disease diagnosis. Today most initial diagnosis is done by a physician who makes a preliminary diagnosis (based on symptoms, and hunches) and then orders a test, or sometimes a small panel of tests. Now, but more so in the future, the physician can order a Syndromic test, for a respiratory infection for instance, and get an answer in a few hours or even a few minutes on exactly what the infection is. This answer covers a wide range of possible pathogens, is much more accurate, requires no sample preparation and almost no training of personnel. This new approach is superior in every way: speed, overall cost, quality and outcome. Further it lowers the spread of infectious disease, lowers length of hospital stay and limits the development of antimicrobial resistance.

In such a situation the potential global market for syndromic testing could exceed 100 million tests per year. If one imagines that infectious disease testing is done more frequently than today because of the presence of syndromic test units in physician’s offices or in homes then the market becomes very much larger, conceivably well over 100 million tests per year or more. So, this is a very attractive market whose growth is well underway. The Pandemic has given a 2-year boost to market growth in this area, obviously based on Respiratory testing.