Desire to delay pregnancy, increasing late pregnancy related complications and physicians opting for advanced genetic testing for high risk pregnant women during their first trimester is driving the demand for non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) market in India, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

GlobalData’s report, Prenatal Screening Tests (In Vitro Diagnostics) – Global Market Analysis and Forecast Model (COVID-19 Market Impact), reveals that NIPT tests market in India is expected to exceed US$20m in 2025.

NIPT market in India has declined in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the market is expected to recover completely in 2021 with growth returning from 2022 onwards. The NIPT market is highly fragmented in India with Medgenome Labs Ltd, LifeCell, Dr Lal PathLabs, Eurofins Scientific being the major players.

Gopinadh Gundreddy, Medical Devices Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “NIPT, which uses cell-free DNA circulating in maternal blood as attendant collects blood samples from the arm which leaves no scope of harm to the fetus, is safe as well as a crucial test for pregnant women.”

The specificity and sensitivity of NIPT is high and the test reduces the overall need for invasive testing as several pregnant women are uncomfortable with invasive testing because of its physical discomfort and associated risks such as procedure-induced miscarriage, limb deficiencies, vaginal bleeding and infection.

Mr Gopinadh concludes: “In 2020, NIPT accounted for more than 11% of the prenatal screening tests market in India. Introducing NIPT into routine prenatal care, educating patients through genetic counseling and making NIPT available in remote areas will further boost its adoption in India. The acceptance and utility of NIPT test will be greater if the test can be made more economical or the tests get subsidized by the government.”