The bioscience industry is about to step into 2013 and the year is predicted to unfold with new opportunities and trends that were so far just talk in the laboratories. First and foremost, the fact that blockbusters are on the verge of patent expiration has been a big worry for pharmaceutical companies, who have churned out mammoth profits from these drugs. Frost & Sullivan suggests that the top global pharmaceutical companies are employing new growth strategies to counter mounting industry challenges and are seeking to accelerate drug discovery plans and in 2013 more drug discovery tie-ups with external companies will be noticed.

"In addition to implementing new growth strategies to face larger economic challenges, pharmaceutical companies are doing less R&D internally than decades ago," said Ms Winny Tan, industry analyst, Frost & Sullivan. "By externalizing much of the development work for drugs and diagnostics, development costs are curbed while organizations are able to leverage outside expertise."

Read what the industry leaders predict for 2013:

• Dr Steven Fang, partner, Clearbridge Accelerator, Singapore
• Mr Mario Pennisi, CEO, LifeScience Queensland, Australia
• Mr Rizatuddin Ramli, CEO, Bio-XCell, Malaysia
• Mr Simranjit Singh, chairman, BioSingapore, Singapore
• Mr Steven Kaufman, director, marketing, SHL Group, Taiwan
• Mr Anthony S Rebuck, head, strategic drug dev, Asia, Quintiles, Singapore
• Ms Sarah Rickwood, director, thought leadership, IMS Health, UK
• Dr Karen Chu, corporate VP, project leadership APAC, Parexel, China
• Mr George Baeder, senior VP, APAC consulting, Quintiles, China
• Mr Denzil Benjamin, senior director, Icon Clinical Research, India
• Mr Tarun Pandotra, project manager, PRA, India
• Dr Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, CMD, Biocon, India
• Mr Arindam Sen, CEO, Advanced Micronic Devices, India 
• Mr Ashwin Sreenivasan, director, Yethi Medical Systems and Mr Harish Nuggehalli, founder and chief technologist, Yethi Medical Systems, India
• Mr Nitin Sawant, GM, diagnostics, Trivitron Healthcare, India
• Mr Paul Wright, CEO, Universal Biosensors, Australia
• Dr Saleem Mohammad, CEO & co-founder, Xcode Lifesciences, India
• Dr Harish Iyer, CSO, Shantha Biotechnics, India
• Mr Cameron Reynolds, CEO, VolitionRx, Singapore

In 2012, impressive developments were seen in the field of genomics, and countries such as Taiwan, Singapore and Korea implemented new plans to accelerate genomics research. Industry believes that in 2013 more initiatives would be taken to enhance genomics-related activities in various countries. It will gain wider reach, giving way to the trend of personal genomics where individuals can track their health issue way in advance.

Preventive diagnostics is another area where industry will be seen capitalizing opportunities in 2013 amidst the wave of churning ideas into revolutionary products targeted to bring healthcare services faster, better and smarter.

"The potential for research to have implications on the diagnosis and treatment of diseases has spurred technology development towards faster, more sensitive, cheaper research tools," said Ms Tan. "Expeditious, more cost-effective research leads to shorter timelines between biomarker discovery and the development of tests and therapeutics, and thus, better patient outcomes."

Supporting the prediction, Mr Arindam Sen, CEO, Advanced Micronic Devices, suggested that the diagnostic industry will witness a major trend where standalone diagnostic centers would become obsolete, comprehensive set-ups will be on the rise and specialty diagnostic centers that provide one-stop solution for all kinds of tests will gain popularity.

Another area where Asian emerging companies have shown their fierce approach is biosimilars. IMS Healthcare shares that in the first half of 2011, biosimilars market was valued at $378 million, and the number is expected to touch $1.9 billion-$2.6 billion by 2015, reflecting that a lot of action will be taking place in 2013.

Now that India and China have developed their own regulatory pathways to manage the approval of biosimilars, they have lowered the barrier of clinical trial requirements and regulatory control. This enables local manufacturers to enter the pharmerging markets on a more level playing field, pointed out IMS Health.