Virtually everyone has heard recent discussions about the microbiome and its effect on human health. It has been implicated in the cause and modification of diseases ranging from depression to C. difficile infection, to Parkinson's and many more. While people are usually referring to the population of commensal bacteria in the gut when they use the term “microbiome,” companies are also focusing on other microbiomes, including, skin, vaginal, nasal, etc.
Though it is often mentioned that the era of microbiome research and discovery is in its infancy (this has been the refrain for the last ten years or so), many companies have been formed to develop therapies based on some aspect of the microbiome. Big pharma is also working on biome-based therapies and/or forming partnerships with biome focused startups.
It can be difficult to keep up with all of the companies working in this space. New announcements and claims are made almost weekly. Cafepharma has created a database that will make it easier to learn about companies in this arena and track the progress they are making towards launching microbiome based therapies.
There are several types of microbiome influencing products that are being studied. These include products that are meant to provide a more complete and diverse bacterial population, metabolites derived from beneficial bacteria, peptides and polysaccharides from biome bacteria that signal the immune system in various ways, phages meant to selectively remove harmful strains of bacteria, etc.
One of the most studied area in the gut microbiome field is that of preventing and treating recurrent and chronic C. difficile infections. FMT (fecal microbiota transplants) have been successful in many cases of treating this very challenging problem. However, FMTs do come with a number of difficult to assess risks. Several companies are working on more standardized solutions.
Synthetic Biologics is developing several products that degrade antibiotics in the gut but do not interfere with absorption. The idea is to prevent the antibiotics from killing most of the gut bacteria and creating a situation where resistant C. diff can over-populate. Vedanta, Seres , Rebiotix, and Finch Therapeutics are creating products that provide live bacteria to repopulate the gut and combat recurrent C. diff. Seres and Rebiotix are in the most advanced development stages with products in phase III studies.
Another area with a lot of activity is skin problems. Acne and atopic dermatitis are problems where a number of companies are pursuing biome based treatments. In our database, there are listings for two products being developed for acne and five that are in the works for atopic dermatitis.
There is no doubt that we will continue to see a lot of discovery coming from microbiome research and the companies developing treatments focused on this field. Our database currently has 73 conditions for which biome based products are being developed.
Database subscribers are able to access microbiome related information in a number of ways. They will be able to review the list of companies, the list of products, products by condition, and products by stage of development.
Cafepharma Daily Premium newsletter subscribers will have access to the microbiome database as part of their subscription. You can subscribe to the Cafepharma Daily Premium newsletter for $14.99 per month, with no contract necessary. In addition to the database access, you’ll receive our twice-daily newsletter each Monday-Friday, with headlines + roundups of the latest industry news.
