Recent analysis by GlobalData revealed that sales volumes across US healthcare sites and other facilities such as distribution centres and medical labs of tests for popular STI targets decreased in the first half (H1) of 2025 versus H1 2024, with the reasons for the declines “multifactorial”, an expert has said.
The most popular STI testing targets in the US are chlamydia and gonorrhoea (CT/NG) as a dual test, according to GlobalData’s Sexual Health Tests Stock Keeping Unit Tracker, which analyses purchasing records from 1,350 US hospitals and other facilities.
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Roche’s Cobas (CT/NG) test has accounted for 44.6% of total volume sales to date in 2025, with Hologic’s Aptima Panther (CT/NG) test making up 39.9%.
When comparing the volume of sales in all facility types, GlobalData analysis found that sales volume from H1 2024 to H1 2025 for CT/NG dual tests decreased 1.7%, and when looking at total value, it also declined 1.8%. Specifically, the volume of sales noted an 8.5% decrease in sales of Hologic’s test, albeit a 4.6% increase in sales for Roche’s test. However, when looking at hospitals alone, the H1 2024-H1 2025 volume of tests increased by 4.7% and the value by 3.7% for CT/NG tests.
The tracker also reflects that for bacterial vaginosis, there was a volume sold decrease of 27.8% comparing H1 2024 and H1 2025, with a decrease in volume of just 1.6% when looking at hospitals alone.
Responding to the findings, Dr Steven Goldberg, chief medical officer at US-based PCR testing company HealthTrackRx, told Medical Device Network that more individuals are getting tested for STIs in settings other than hospital-based platforms.
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By GlobalDataHighlighting the ongoing national debate about the role of the federal government in support of certain types of public health, such as STI testing, Goldberg said there are growing concerns that there will be an adverse impact on access to traditional public health sources for testing, which is potentially beginning to inform where individuals go for test access.
He said: “What we do know is that access is expanding in the urgent care environment. While it’s older data from 2010 to 2014, it went up 2.5 times, and my recent dialogue with the Urgent Care Association suggests that testing in those centres continues to increase.”
Goldberg notes that the 2021 CDC guidelines haven’t changed and remain “very prescriptive” about what “should happen” concerning testing demographics. For instance, that sexually active women under 25 years of age are still advised to get screened for gonorrhoea and chlamydia annually, with men having sex with men advised to get screened for those STIs plus syphilis annually, or more frequently “if the risk is higher”.
He continued: “What has changed is what federal support might look like over the next year or two. In terms of where people are going, I suggest more to urgent care, and increasing amounts at home – each of which are factors we need to consider.”
Goldberg adds that among HealthTrackRx’s constituents, and particularly in urgent care, their provision of testing is going up, concluding: “I’ll support the observation that there’s been a recent reduction in testing, but I would just say that it’s likely multifactorial.
“We’ve also seen the availability of a first home self-collection for different types of testing, such as syphilis and other STIs, which I suspect will also continue to expand. In summary, the status around access to, and use of, testing in 2025 is a mixed picture.”
