Canada Microfluidics Market Overview, 2029

From tectonic innovations to a supportive ecosystem, the microfluidics market in Canada has undergone evolution. This white paper assesses the current status of the market, its technological driving forces, and the strategic initiatives needed to realize its full potential. The environmental and ethical considerations assume ever greater importance in today's microfluidic markets. The development of sustainable materials for the manufacture of microfluidic devices is being focused on due to a concern for the reduction in the footprint on the environment fretted by medical and laboratory equipment. Very important are the ethical concerns, such as the safe use and responsibility of microfluidic technologies in research and clinical use. These are considerations that need to be addressed in order to keep the public's trust and ensure long-term sustainability of the microfluidics Canadian market. Supply chain and distribution network form a very important part of the microfluidics market. Effective supply management enables the availability of the required raw materials/components for the production of microfluidic devices at the right time. Strong channels of distribution should be set up by companies to achieve the target markets of their products effectively. It might also forge key strategic partnerships with a distributor or supplier in maintaining the quality of materials and ensuring customers efficiently get the products. While the market continues to grow in the near future, an efficient and agile supply chain will be critical to satisfying the growing demand for microfluidics technologies throughout Canada. On their part, the strong academic and research institutions in Canada may contribute much towards the growth in the microfluidics market. This research is led by institutions such as the University of Toronto, McGill University, and the University of British Columbia, which lead in scientific discovery and technological innovation in microfluidics. The universities tend to partner with industrial partners in translation, which opens opportunities for innovations and fast-tracks new microfluidic technologies. These class Act research institutions act as the bedrock of growth for the microfluidics market in Canada. According to the research report "Canada Microfluidics Market Overview, 2029," published by Bonafide Research, the Canada Microfluidics market is anticipated to grow at more than 13% CAGR from 2024 to 2029. Customization and personalization is fast becoming a potential trend in the microfluidics market. An increasing number of companies are offering customized solutions to specific applications or end-users. This could mean coming up with microfluidic devices featuring specified channel geometries, materials, or functionalities that meet certain research or diagnostic needs. Another important factor is the increasing emphasis on personalized medicine, where treatment is tailored for the respective patient. This trend of customization and personalization enables microfluidic technologies to be more versatile and applicable, hence more attractive to a larger group of users. Despite such promising growth prospects, some restraints live with the microfluidics market in Canada. Due to the high price of microfluidic devices and the associated complex manufacturing processes, it becomes expensive, and thus its adoption is limited only to cost-sensitive markets. Another challenge to the end-users is the lack of standardized protocols and procedures for using microfluidic technologies. It competes with the traditional diagnostic and analytical methods that are very well established and enjoy a high level of trust. These constraints, therefore, shall be overcome by continuous innovation, cost reduction strategies, and standardization as well as the simplification of microfluidic devices. The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the microfluidics market strongly in terms of the realization of the need for fast and accurate diagnostic tools. The call for PoC testing and lab-on-chip devices immediately increased during the pandemic when health systems were in search of efficient ways to detect and handle the virus. The increased demand also accelerated the development and adoption of microfluidic technologies in diagnostics. Another lesson learned from the pandemic is the building of resilient supply chains and to have in place a robust manufacturing capability. For this reason, several companies have been increasing their production capacities by investing in new technologies so as to meet the increased demand.

Currently, the most exciting creation in biomedicine, diagnosis, and chemical and environmental monitoring is microfluidics technology. Microfluidic chips flow fluids at microscale dimensions, with dimensions normally in the range of microns. These microfluidic devices offer various benefits, including reduced volume of sample, high throughput, low cost, and portability. A number of Canadian microfluidics component products have taken the lead with this technology. Primary components in microchannel-based microfluidic devices are microchannels that are used to transmit the fluids. The essential requirements for microchannels are accomplished mainly using various scoring sources, such as glass, silicon, and polymers. A good example could be given of uFluidix, a Canadian-based company that provides microfluidic chips with extremely complex networks of channels for cell biology, drug discovery, as well as chemical synthesis needs. The other critical component of microfluidic devices is the micropump. Fluid forcing is performed by the micropump. Micropumps can be classified into two broad categories including mechanical pumps and non-mechanical pumps. Non-mechanical pumps are driven by external forces, such as electrokinetic forces or magnetic forces. Dolomite Microfluidics is a company that has a very great presence in Canada and offers a wide variety of micropumps for microfluidic applications. An integral part in the microfluidic devices is the microvalves, which help to control the direction and rate of flow. The valves can be classified as either active or passive. Active microvalves rely on external power while passive microvalves work due to some physical properties of the fluid. For example, a global leader in microfluidic flow control with a strong presence in Canada, Fluigent, offers high-performance microvalves for various microfluidic applications. Microsensors and microactuators are other essential parts of microfluidic devices. The purpose of the microsensor is to detect changes in the physical or chemical properties of the fluid, and the microactuator will work to manipulate the fluid according to the feedback information received from the sensor. Micralyne, an Alberta-based CanadianCompany, offers a variety of microsensors and microactuators for multiple microfluidic applications in life sciences, aerospace, and telecommunications. Microfluidic mixers are, therefore, mix elements for small-scale fluid mixing. This may be active or passive mixers. Active mixers are those that use some form of applied energy for mixing to occur, and passive use the flow pattern of the fluid. IDEX Health & Science is a company based in Canada that offers plenty of microfluidic mixers for several applications in biotechnology and diagnostics. The microfluidics market represents a very broad field of materials that are selected based on their unique properties and advantages some applications require. Among them, polymers, mainly PDMS and PMMA, dominate the area due to their cost-effectiveness, ease of fabrication, and biocompatibility that turns them into a real treasure for the production of disposables in lab-on-a-chip devices and point-of-care diagnostics. It finds broad applications in high-resolution imaging or exposure to harsh chemicals, such as DNA sequencing chips and chemical synthesis platforms, owing to its better optical clarity and resistance to chemicals. Silicon is able to borrow heavily from very mature semiconductor fabrication techniques that enable ultra-precise control and the ability to integrate with electronics, making it essential for both MEMS devices and advanced biosensors. Beyond these two primary materials, innovation has been witnessed in alternative substrates brought to the market. Paper-based microfluidics is currently shifting the paradigm in the development of low-cost, disposable diagnostic tools—lateral flow tests, for example. Ceramic-based systems have high resistance in very high-temperature and harshly chemical environments and found niche applications in specialized microreactors. Hydrogels have the potentials to actually mimic biological tissues, pushing the frontier in 3D cell culture and tissue engineering within microfluidic devices. Less frequent is metal-based microfluidics, exploiting the high quality property in advanced thermal conductivity of metals such as copper or aluminum in heat management and power systems applications. This material diversity fueling microfluidics further innovation enables the development of ever more sophisticated devices for very specific applications across a broad sweep of fields, from healthcare and pharmaceuticals through environmental monitoring to industrial process control. Various applications, such as point-of-care diagnostics, drug delivery systems, pharmaceutical and biotechnology research, in vitro diagnostics, and other applications, drive the Canadian microfluidics market. The most important application of microfluidics technology is point-of-care diagnostics, with miniaturization helping to achieve both detection and fluid control within a single component, thus combining increased sensitivity and specificity for detecting ever more targets in ever-decreasing volume sizes. Microfluidic-based devices find wide applications for POCT devices in molecular biology and chemical and biochemical analysis. For instance, Revogene, a real-time PCR device based on a microfluidics cartridge, is capable of testing C. difficile, Stret B, Streptococcus A, and can provide results in around 2 minutes. This enables in vitro diagnostics embedded with microfluidic technologies for point-of-care diagnostics, PCR systems, analyzers, electrophoretic systems, and lately in increased applications in diagnostic, pharmaceutical, biotechnology companies, and also in forensic applications. Such microfluidic devices have many advantages: they are portable, can increase test frequency, and consume fewer reagents and samples while increasing the accuracy and speed of analysis. The growing use of proteomics and genomics technologies in diagnostic procedures and faster detection of viral load and antigens at diagnostic laboratories and ease and faster identification of high volume tests and early detection of numerous viral diseases are the major driving factors of the increasing microfluidic market across hospitals and diagnostic laboratories. Pharmaceutical and biotechnical research are another important domain in which microfluidics can be applied to increase speed and efficiency in the processes related to the discovery and development of new drugs and bio-products. For drug delivery systems, it is also applied to develop novel drug delivery systems that might improve efficiency and safety of treatment. Some of the other applications of the microfluidic field include labs-in-a chip, DNA analysis, separation of cells, separation of particles, immunoassays, PCR, protein microarrays, ELISA, enzyme kinetics, environmental testing, and industrial applications. The market for microfluidic devices is also driven by such technologically driven developments of associated products. Companies have developed advanced instruments for various applications that have phenomenal speed and sensitivity in measurements, very small.

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Manmayi Raval

Research Consultant

Canada has placed itself at a certain position on the global microfluidics player board, with its powerful academic research base and blooming biotechnology sector. A blend of innovation-oriented academia, government support, and commercial development marks the scenario of microfluidics in Canada.The University of Toronto, McGill University, and the University of British Columbia are at the forefront in the research on microfluidics. These universities have microfluidic research groups that are associated with them and are currently working on highly relevant applications, such as new lab-on-a-chip devices for medical diagnostics to microfluidic systems for environmental monitoring. The Canadian government has recognized the potential of microfluidics and provided funding through such agencies as NSERC and CIHR. This spawned university-industry collaborations, accelerating the commercialization of microfluidic technologies. It is because of this that it plays host to several leading microfluidics companies in the commercial sector across Canada. For example, Micralyne Inc. is based in Edmonton for the fabrication process of MEMS and microfluidic devices. Fluidigm Canada Inc. forms another great example in developing microfluidic-based tools for research in life science areas. The health sector has been at the forefront in embracing microfluidics in Canada by developing point-of-care diagnostic devices. This radials well across Canada's huge geography and the resulting requirements for healthcare tools that work remotely in rural areas and the North. Environmental applications of microfluidics are also of interest, given that Canada has pressing issues with both natural resources management and environmental protection. Monitoring water quality and analysis of oil sands represent two microfluidic device applications areas that attract serious attention. Droplet emulsion production by manual homogenization of oil and water was done in early studies when working at the Department of Plant Biology. Researchers did not stop looking until they found a pressure-driven atomization process for generating the droplet stream and then utilized a commercially available microfluidic droplet system to study the encapsulation of single cells in hydrogel beads reproducibly and reliably by the creation of droplets. It allowed for the use of a new methodology in this department for the study of biomechanics of plant cells through encapsulation of living protoplasts of plants in spherical hydrogel beads of defined size. Considered in this report • Historic year: 2018 • Base year: 2023 • Estimated year: 2024 • Forecast year: 2029 Aspects covered in this report • Microfluids market Outlook with its value and forecast along with its segments • Various drivers and challenges • On-going trends and developments • Top profiled companies • Strategic recommendation

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By Product Type • Microfluidic-based Devices • Microfluidic Components (Microfluidic Chips, Micro Pumps, Microneedles and other Mocrofluids Components Type) By Material • Polymer • Glass • Silicon • Other Materials (Paper-based microfluidics, Ceramic-based microfluidics, Hydrogels, Metal-based microfluidics) By Application • Point-of-care diagnostics • Drug delivery systems • Pharmaceutical and biotechnology research • In vitro diagnostics • Others (e.g., environmental testing, industrial applications) By End User • Hospitals and diagnostic centers • Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies • Academic and research institutes • Others (e.g., contract research organizations, industrial users) The approach of the report: This report consists of a combined approach of primary and secondary research. Initially, secondary research was used to get an understanding of the market and list the companies that are present in it. The secondary research consists of third-party sources such as press releases, annual reports of companies, and government-generated reports and databases. After gathering the data from secondary sources, primary research was conducted by conducting telephone interviews with the leading players about how the market is functioning and then conducting trade calls with dealers and distributors of the market. Post this; we have started making primary calls to consumers by equally segmenting them in regional aspects, tier aspects, age group, and gender. Once we have primary data with us, we can start verifying the details obtained from secondary sources. Intended audience This report can be useful to industry consultants, manufacturers, suppliers, associations, and organizations related to the Microfluids industry, government bodies, and other stakeholders to align their market-centric strategies. In addition to marketing and presentations, it will also increase competitive knowledge about the industry.