Leading protein suppliers and products in cancer research

By Rebecca Sadler

March 29, 2022

Skip to data download

To provide a fresh perspective on the different ways CiteAb data can be analysed, today we explore data within a research area. 

Focusing on the area of ‘cancer research’, we look at the top suppliers and products. The cancer research area of focus is particularly impactful, with work from suppliers having the potential to translate into improved clinical outcomes for thousands of patients. We therefore thought it important to acknowledge those suppliers succeeding in this area.

What protein data was used for this analysis?

We took our protein citation data from 2017-2021, encompassing thousands of citations for over a hundred suppliers, and specifically focused on data within the ‘cancer research’ area. This included over 10,000 citations from 69 suppliers of these products.

Who are the top cited cancer research suppliers?

The top three cited protein suppliers in cancer research are all well established and widely known companies supplying a variety of products, not limited to cancer research or proteins.

Leading in this market overall is MilliporeSigma, claiming 36% of the citation share for the five year period of this analysis. PeproTech holds a strong 17% market share, followed closely by R&D systems in third position with a share of 16%. 

How has supplier share in cancer research changed? 

These supplier citation share values are not static, with gains and losses occurring over time. 

Of particular note, we have seen a slight decrease in share from MilliporeSigma from 38% to 35% and R&D drop from 19% to 15% between 2017 and 2021. PeproTech, meanwhile, have impressively increased their share from 15% to 18%. 

Other suppliers who we have noticed increasing citation share for include: New England Biolabs, BioLegend, Abcam and Promega. It may take some time for these suppliers to claim a top three position given their current citation share, but we may expect to see some fluctuations in the rankings between these four suppliers. To find out more about the top ten suppliers, you can download our sample data at the bottom of this blog.

What are the top cited products?

So we’ve covered the top cited suppliers, but what about the products they are providing? 

Three of the top ten products are from PeproTech and six from MilliporeSigma – to be expected given these are the top two suppliers. 

The top cited product overall in this market is from PeproTech with their AF-100-15, Animal-Free Recombinant EGF, an important growth factor used to stimulate the proliferation of epidermal and epithelial cells. With over 500 citations, this product has been used in work on a variety of cancers ranging from adenocarcinoma, to glioma and breast cancer. 

Within the top 50 were many more growth factors and bovine serums. We also noted occurrences of Annexin V, a useful protein for identifying cells undergoing apoptosis. You can sign up at the bottom of this blog to download data on the top 50 products in cancer research.

It was interesting to find that a product by New England Biolabs takes 10th position, their T4 DNA Ligase. This product breaking into the top ten could be contributing to their growing share in the market (6% to 8%). New England Biolabs is known as a world leader in the discovery and production of enzymes. We have previously noted in our blog that New England Biolabs positively changed their growth trajectory in 2014, and has been growing each year since.

Discover more data

You can download data on the top 10 suppliers by signing up below, covering their citation share each year from 2017-2021, as well as the top 50 cited products and their citation share. Do get in touch if you would like to find out more about our protein market data and how it can be used.

• Rebecca and the CiteAb team 

About the author

Rebecca is Head of Product, responsible for the Biochemical and Protein Market data and managing the Citation Provision team at CiteAb.

More posts by Rebecca