A biomarker is an identifiable and measurable characteristic that identifies the severity and/or occurrence of a specific disease. It has applications in the discovery and development of novel therapeutic drugs. The global biomarkers market shows a high growth potential and accounts for $17.5 billion in 2013. And it is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 18.5% from 2013 to 2018, to reach $40.8 billion by 2018, according to a report by RnRMarketResearch.com, an online database of market research reports.

The major drivers slated to propel the growth of this market include advancements in discovery technologies, high demand from the indications of various diseases, increasing partnerships and collaborations to boost biomarker research, increase in government and private sector investments and funds for biomarker discovery, FDA support for biomarker development and increasing utility of biomarkers in patient stratification and drug development. However, a few pivotal factors, such as the high capital investment and low benefit-cost ratio, cumbersome biomarker validation procedure and difficulty in sample collection and its storage, are expected to hamper growth of this market.

The global market has been segmented into discovery technologies, services, applications and disease indications. The biomarker discovery technology market has been further segmented into omics technology, imaging technology and bioinformatics. The omics technology segment accounts for the largest share, primarily due to the increase in adoption of proteomics and genomics technologies across the globe.

In addition, the biomarker services (sample preparation, assay development and biomarker validation and testing) and applications (drug discovery and formulation and development of molecular diagnostics and personalized medicine) markets also are included in the report. The drug discovery and development segment holds the largest share of biomarker applications market, attributed to the potential of biomarkers to reduce the length of clinical trials, ultimately decreasing the overall cost of the entire drug discovery and development process.

By type of disease, the global biomarkers market is further classified as oncology, cardiology, neurology and other diseases (HIV, renal disorders, diabetes, arthritis and tuberculosis). Oncology biomarkers account for the lion's share of the biomarker disease indication market, and this market is forecast to grow at the highest growth rate in the next five years, being stimulated by the increasing need for the early diagnosis of tumor cells. Oncology biomarkers enhance the screening and early detection of cancer as well as facilitate the high-speed, non-invasive cancer diagnosis procedure.