South Korea's HIV tests market to peak in 2021

The HIV incidence rate in the country has stabilised, but testing is expected to rise.

The HIV tests market in South Korea is projected to reach a peak market value in 2021 after declining by about 30% in 2020 due to the pandemic, according to a report from GlobalData.

HIV enzyme immunoassay (EIA) tests and nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) are the most commonly performed HIV tests in South Korea. These tests together accounted for more than 90% of the HIV testing market in 2020.

“Although the incidence rate of HIV has stabilised, testing is expected to increase due to significant increase in the number of surviving HIV patients. This trend is largely attributed to the improvement in healthcare access for HIV patients and the success of antiretroviral therapy,” GlobalData’s medical devices analyst Bhaskar Vittal said.

Furthermore, the market is heavily impacted by testing on pregnant women, semen donations, whole blood donations, and source plasma donations.

“The number of tests conducted on semen donations, whole blood donations, and source plasma donations have been impacted negatively in 2020 due to COVID-19. HIV testing is expected to bounce back strongly for these cases in 2021 due to disease containment efforts by the government and the availability of vaccines,” Vittal added.