Human Microbiome Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2021 - 2026)

Microbiome therapeutics found a broad range of applications in the arena of COVID-19, Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), C. difficile infections, Crohn’s disease, and diabetes. Rising research activities undertaken by research institutes for finding more therapeutic applications of the human microbiome are expected to accentuate the growth.

For instance, in 2020, the University of Zurich was investigating the microbiota in COVID-19 patients for future preventive and therapeutic approaches (MICRO-COV). Positive results from these research studies will open up the growth avenues to the segment studied.

Furthermore, the increasing efforts of pharmaceutical companies for the development of novel drugs are also a high impact rendering factor for the growth. According to a report by Seventure Partners, a French VC investor, in 2018 alone, over 2400 clinical trials were registered as the testing therapies on microbiome science.

In July 2019, the Microbiome Therapeutics Innovation Group (MTIG) announced the addition of Siolta Therapeutics to its coalition of companies leading the R&D of microbiome therapeutics and microbiome-based products.

All the aforementioned factors are likely to boost the segmental growth over the forecast period.

North America currently dominates the market for the human microbiome due to the rising incidences of lifestyle-related diseases and autoimmune disorders in these regions. The presence of a strong drug pipeline can also be attributed to the highly lucrative growth. For instance, in 2020, Seres Therapeutics' stool-derived treatment for recurrent Clostridium difficile infection cleared the phase-III of clinical trials.

Furthermore, in August 2019, the Stanford Microbiome Therapies Initiative (MITI), a joint initiative between Stanford ChEM-H and the Department of Bioengineering was launched to harness the communities of microbes inhabiting human bodies.

As per an article in BioMed Central Journal, 2019, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) provides support to the microbiome project, with 21 out of 27 NIH institutes supporting and funding this area through extramural projects.

Also, in 2019, the Government of Canada announced an investment of USD 18 million for microbiome research. This investment may support seven research teams from across the country that will study the microbiome to better understand its contribution to childhood asthma, cervical cancer, diabetes, youth inflammatory bowel disease, and maternal malnutrition. Thus, these research initiatives and rising government funding have established North America as one of the major markets in the human microbiome and helped this market to grow at a healthy rate.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for North American companies and research organizations to collaborate with the government to develop therapeutics and diagnostics, in order to meet future health crises. Several universities and key players are focusing on developing interventions for coronavirus. In March 2020, Kaleido Biosciences initiated the controlled clinical study of microbiome metabolic therapy, KB109, in outpatients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19. Thus, it is expected to further boost the market studied over the forecast.