There may be some early wins when applying new thinking about the microbiome to novel approaches to therapy, but it’s going to take time to link insights into the microbial flora with disease and to come up with new medicines, says Per Falk, executive vice-president and chief scientific officer at Ferring International Center SA, a mid-sized pharma that has the microbiome very much on its R&D agenda.
Falk, a 30-year veteran of research into this nascent therapeutic approach, believes the level of complexity involved in the microbiome interacting with its human
“There is a group of players who dive in and test their ideas, based on what they know and read, and you will see interesting trials and interesting reports, but you will also see setbacks,” he told Scrip in a recent interview. “The likelihood of success is fairly small, because you know certain things but you don’t know other influences