analytica 2020: The world’s largest virtual trade fair for analysis, laboratory technology and biotechnology

- 268 exhibitors present their latest novelties on virtual exhibition booths and in 200 webinars
- Event highlights: analytica conference and special show “Digital Transformation”
- Market figures: German laboratory industry in the coronavirus year with winners and losers

For the first time in its more than fifty-year-long success story, from October 19 to 23 analytica 2020 will take place in purely digital form. This year, no other format offers such a comprehensive overview of the latest developments in analysis, biotechnology and laboratory technology. 268 exhibitors are going to present their product innovations and services on virtual exhibition booths and in a total of 200 webinars. In addition, there will be tried and tested analytica formats that have been transferred into cyberspace. These include the globally unique special show “Digital Transformation” and the analytica conference. analytica virtual is available 24 hours a day for the international audience. Visitors can participate free of charge.

In virtual form, too, analytica once more offers the central platform for companies in the fields of analysis, biotechnology and laboratory technology. In Germany, their industry is overall reporting significantly lower economic losses due to the coronavirus pandemic than other sectors of the economy are – and even sales gains in some areas. This is confirmed by market figures presented at analytica by the German industry association SPECTARIS and the German Association of the Diagnostics Industry (VDGH). 

According to a recent SEPCTARIS survey, the approximately 330 German manufacturers of analytical, bioanalytical and laboratory technology are expected to generate sales of approximately nine billion euros this year, with almost five billion of these from abroad. This would be a decline in sales by four percent. The minus in exports may even amount to five percent. “In order to get the export motor running again in these difficult times, international trade and exchange must be further strengthened, and the trends towards national isolation must be counteracted. Here digital formats are also helpful,” emphasizes Mathis Kuchejda, Chairman of the SPECTARIS Association for Analysis, Biotechnology and Laboratory Technology.

Strong industry participation proves the relevance of the event

With analytica virtual, Messe München is implementing an appropriate digital format in cooperation with its partner LUMITOS. This purely digital industry event will completely replace the presence fair this year. “analytica virtual is by far the largest virtual trade fair for analysis, laboratory technology and biotechnology ever held. 268 exhibitors from 24 countries will present their innovations to an international audience at analytica virtual. The great interest on the part of the exhibitors is proof of the industry’s confidence in us and our digital concept,” says Dr. Reinhard Pfeiffer, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of Messe München. In addition to industry giants such as Agilent, Eppendorf, Merck, Olympus, Shimadzu and Thermo Fisher, among others also 17 start-ups have confirmed their participation.

Visitors have almost all the possibilities of the conventional trade fair tour, combined with temporal and spatial independence. You can jump from one virtual booth to the next and receive a complete market overview within a very short time by means of digital product presentations.  Filter options facilitate organization in the run-up; communication with exhibitors takes place via text, audio or video chat. In addition, visitors can look forward to a total of 200 webinars from exhibitors.

Supporting program on current issues in the industry

Central elements of analytica are present in the virtual embodiment as well: • The analytica conference offers 119 specialist presentations connecting science and application – this time in the form of webinars. The event is organized by the German Chemical Society (Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker, GDCh), the Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Gesellschaft für Biochemie und Molekularbiologie, GBM), and the Society for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Klinische Chemie und Laboratoriumsmedizin, DGKL). • The special show “Digital Transformation” presents eight exclusive digitized laboratory workflows in video demonstrations.

Participation in analytica virtual 2020 is free of charge for visitors. After successful registration, the event platform is accessible 24 hours a day. Many program items will be repeated at various times to facilitate participation by the international audience.

The laboratory industry under the impact of the coronavirus pandemic

“The laboratory is one of the most important interfaces, where the two sectors of in-vitro diagnostics (IVD) and life science research (LSR) meet. This had never been as clear as it has become in the corona pandemic,” says Dr. Peter Quick, board member of the German Diagnostics Industry Association (VDGH) and Chairman of the Life Science Research Department of the VDGH. “However, the two markets are reporting differing developments.” 

The year 2019 took quite a disappointing course for both sectors – in the IVD industry there was a decline by 0.4 percent, in the LSR an increase of merely 1.6 percent. During the outbreak of the pandemic, it became evident how tightly the IVD and LSR industries are intermeshed. As early as Q1-2020, the companies in both fields harnessed all their energies for the identification, isolation, purification and detection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, so that already in the first half of 2020, 12.5 percent sales growth was seen in the LSR market; in the IVD field, the growth resulting from the laboratory tests required to control the pandemic is likewise beginning to overcompensate the decline in routine tests. Innovations in COVID19 diagnostics will dominate the second half of 2020, e.g. antigen testing in IVD, while LSR companies will support basic research, vaccine and drug development with all their technologies.

The market figures of the German Industry Association for Optics, Photonics, Analytical and Medical Technology SPECTARIS also show that the general decline in turnover in the industry, both in domestic business and in exports, must be viewed in a more differentiated manner: In this corona-dominated year, demand was particularly strong for consumer goods and equipment for virus diagnostics, test kits, sterilizers, and technology and laboratory equipment for cell analysis and pharmaceutical research. In contrast, demand declined, in particular with regard to capital goods, for the chemical industry, including the oil, gas and petrochemical sectors, and from the automotive sector.