Seventure examines 2023 progress in gut microbiome research and development

26 Feb 2024 --- Equity investor Seventure Partners has published a report on 2023 research advances in the human microbiome worldwide, including the main implications on health, the progress of clinical studies and therapeutic, diagnostic and nutritional products. The report concludes that microbiome research continued “at pace,” highlighting opportunities for products targeting various gut-organ axes and a range of health issues, including mental and metabolic health, gut health, immunity, longevity and obesity. 

“Drafting this report contributes to the development of this ecosystem, educating the different stakeholders and helping to accelerate the field,” Isabelle de Cremoux, CEO and managing partner of Seventure Partners and the report’s author, tells Nutrition Insight. 

“As a leader in investing in the microbiome, we believe it is important that we dedicate time to helping the global ecosystem to develop.” 

She predicts that in 2024, providers of enabling technologies will accelerate and consolidate, thanks to mergers and acquisitions, and help the microbiome industry become more standardized in gathering materials, running clinical trials and analyzing and interpreting data. “In 2024, we also expect positive clinical outcomes in additional indications to Clostridioides difficile, where three products are already approved.” 

This bacterium causes an infection of the colon, with symptoms ranging from diarrhea to life-threatening damage to the colon. Illness often occurs after using antibiotic medicines, primarily affecting older adults in hospital or long-term care. 

Research advances and drivers 
In the report “Microbiome Progress: A Look at 2023,” De Cremoux notes there is an increasing focus on the functionality of microbes within their environment, rather than single strains, and the community impact on host function in developing future therapeutics. 

She predicts: “Understanding the spatial organization of microbes in their natural niche (e.g., where they are in the gut) will provide greater insight into community structure and host biology.” 

The report explains that a better understanding of the spatial distribution of microbes within the gut will help develop product innovations. “The importance and contribution of biogeography or spatial distribution to microbe activity and function is relatively unexplored.” 

De Cremoux explains that early life and longevity offer “significant opportunities to provide clinically validated interventions targeting the consumer of the 21st century.” At the same time, women’s health is a rapidly growing sector in the microbiome space. 

According to the report, numerous human clinical trials have shown the efficacy of Fecal Microbiome Transplant (FMT) or Full Echosystem products in the “treatment of non-infectious clinical diseases, thereby demonstrating a strong causal relationship between the microbiome and human health and disease.” 

These trials provide detailed insights into the therapeutic components of FMT, which enable the development of second-generation defined microbiome products, such as live biotherapeutics. Moreover, these trials help set the stage for clinical wins against chronic diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease and cancer. 

De Cremoux adds: “Companies developing FMT-related products have achieved the earliest commercial success in treating recurrent C. difficile infections.” 

Nutrition, such as probiotics, that targets the gut needs to address consumer demand for validated health benefits.Microbiome complexity 
The report indicates that the complexity of the human microbiome is well-known, as are factors that contribute to its heterogeneity among people, such as birth mode, diet, lifestyle, antibiotic and drug exposures. 

Due to this complexity, there is a need for large, high-quality longitudinal microbiome datasets for accurate health disease predictions. Moreover, microbiome science and related technologies require more extensive bioinformatic tools and sophisticated interpretation. 

“The microbiome field is at an important crossroads, where deciphering the complexity-function relationship will be a major challenge, and the current issues of interstudy reproducibility and data inconsistency need to be addressed,” De Cremoux highlights. 

Although interest in the microbiome is “at an all-time high,” the report indicates a lack of consistency between studies and laboratories, creating skepticism around the clinical translatability of microbiome products. 

In her report, De Cremoux suggests that applying new technological approaches in machine learning and AI can enable more accurate biomarker and therapeutic discoveries. Combining large cohorts with these latest technologies “provides the power to realize the vision of microbiome-based personalized, precision health care, including disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment.” 

Product opportunities 
The report also highlights potential microbiome product or drug opportunities, such as next-generation probiotics, live biotherapeutic products, postbiotics and small microbial drug molecules. 

“Microbiome science and translation brings major opportunities for pharma and non-pharma sectors — digital health, diagnostics, nutrition and food,” underscores De Cremoux. 

The report highlights: “These products target not only the gut microbiome but also the oral cavity, skin, vagina and lung. The so-called gut-organ axis also provides opportunities to manipulate the gut microbiome and directly impact biological mechanisms that influence organ physiology, including the liver, kidney and brain.”

Microbiome-driven science, innovation and novel drug approvals are set to target indications such as obesity, neurological diseases and cancer. 

Nutritional products targeting the microbiome also continue to grow globally. However, the report indicates these need to “address the consumer demand for validated microbiome products that support mental and metabolic health, gut health and immunity, as well as longevity.”

By Jolanda van Hal