After a high-profile clinical failure in 2016, investor interest in the much-hyped field of microbiome science chilled almost instantly. Now, however, the small but growing industry is starting to rebound.
Several key companies in the field, which focuses on manipulating microbes that are or ought to be in a person’s body, expect to report Phase 2 data by the end of this year, including the Somerville, Mass.-based Finch Therapeutics and a privately held French microbiome biotech, MaaT. Even bigger players in the field, Rebiotix and Seres Therapeutics, are currently running pivotal studies — at least one of which should be fully enrolled by the middle of next year.
And it’s not just the coming data. There are more sophisticated study tools and biomarkers, too, that are helping researchers better understand what these drugs can do. And now, for the first time, the field has a dedicated investor analyst: Taylor Feehley, at Chardan, who also helped organize an investor conference in New York earlier this month that focused solely on the microbiome field.
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Informative but would have been nice to read details of close to IPO companies with micro biome products and their potential. Presenting only one analyst’s opinion fails to provide a balanced view of the field.