By Diagnostics World Staff
October 20, 2017 | A recent survey, conducted by Diagnostics World, provides insight into the practices and opinions of those in drug research and development. We asked 55 qualified members of the R&D industry for their take on the microbiome’s potential for providing contributions in healthcare, among other things.
Responses represented a wide range of company types within the basic research, therapeutics, and diagnostics areas. Academic, biotech, pharma, and government were among those consulted. Within these company types, Insight Pharma Reports didn’t just go to the CEOs for their input. Research directors, principal investigators, marketing or business development managers, and bench scientists also contributed to the survey.
Results from the survey suggest a shift in R&D in favor of microbiome-focused research applications. However, responders also think it is still too early to make definite claims about the microbiome potential.
Of the 55 experts surveyed, the most recurring area of involvement was in seeking connections between dysbiosis and diseases or disorders. When asked, these experts said that sequencing technologies will remain dominant over microarrays for most microbiome diagnostic applications.
Overall, the R&D industry is optimistic about microbiome R&D’s potential contributions in healthcare: 84% of those surveyed were either highly optimistic or somewhat optimistic about microbiome R&D and its ability to contribute to healthcare. The remaining respondents said it was too early to assess microbiome’s contributions.
Despite the optimism in microbiome R&D’s potential, we found that the timeframe of rolling out said applications is still up in the air. We asked those who took the survey to respond to the statement, “It is still early days for translational medicine based on microbiome R&D, and additional years of research is required to establish its potential.” 66% agreed with this statement in some form or other. The majority also said it could take at least a decade for big pharma to involve themselves in microbiome-related R&D.