“The Global Market for LIMS is $350 Million”


-Kim Shah, director, Global Marketing of Informatics Thermofisher Scientific

What is the market potential of LIMS in today’s scenario? 
In the first half of 2008, the market for LIMS was quiet exciting in India but then it slowed down quiet a bit in the second half. Even though global conditions are quiet bad but that didn’t affected India badly. There will still be growth but again it will not be in the first quarter but in the second quarter because everyone is in a wait and watch mode. The market value of informatics business is roughly around $100 million, the proper market for LIMS worth $350 million globally out of which in India and China have a growth rate of 7-10 percent a year.

Where do you see growth in LIMS market in the coming years? 
I really see growth in a new service called software as a service (SAAS). Typically for any software we have to download and configure it. Three years ago, a company named Salesforce.com came up with this idea, which doesn’t require any downloads. All you have to do is just go to the internet key in www.lims.com and then immediately you will be connected to the concerned server. There is no need for investments like IT and server, all the functionalities are available online. In the LIMS space we are going to come out with that model this year. So SAAS as a model will work very well for small and medium size companies which are cutting cost and do not have an IT staff.

What are the market requirements and trends in LIMS space? 
In India, LIMS space is similar to the western market. The businesses started soon after the CRO market reached India. LIMS is a matured market because it has been there for such a long time, there is not much excitement  from the innovation point of view. We are working on an agenda which I call point-to-point integration wherein we will have systems talking to each other, work done simultaneously rather than one job at a time  No company can be an expert in everything. What we will do is provide a connection and be a glue between different systems and prepare a road map for their work flow.
Taking LIMS and integrating it into the enterprises has become a trend now. Our challenge is to further the growth of the active LIMS market. That is why we are really banking on the SAAS model and the integration model. If one or both takes off we hope to see a growth of 5-6 percent. Like for example, for Watson (one of Thermo’s product introduced in India), we are trying to improve on it so that later it will be applicable to the entire work flow rather than just a part of it.

What is the LIMS scenario in India and China?
India is lot more IT friendly than China. In China, any explanation of a software has to be translated into Chinese which becomes very difficult at times. On the positive side the Chinese government is very proactive, once they have decided on something they are determined to get it. Because of many restrictions, the western pharmaceutical companies did not have much relationship with China. The CRO market does not exist in China but there is a lot of scope for animal testing. The pharma market in China is not that prevalent. India has a LIMS market, but it is focused on petrochemicals and not in life sciences. The LIMS market in China as well as India is growing at a rate of 10 percent. Especially in this era of recession I think India and China are the only two markets which will continue to grow in the next two years.