What if the secret to treating chronic diseases and improving overall health isn’t synthetic pills but the trillions of microorganisms living inside us?
That’s the promise of human microbiome-based drugs and diagnostics, a groundbreaking area of medicine that focuses on understanding and using the microbiome (the community of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other microbes living on and inside the human body) to develop new therapies and diagnostic tools.
Once considered medical side notes, these microbes are now at the center of one of the fastest-growing health tech revolutions.
The global market for human microbiome-based drugs and diagnostics is rapidly growing. It is valued at $393.4 million in 2025 and is expected to skyrocket to $1.2 billion by 2030. That’s a staggering compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25.6% over five years.
This explosive growth is driven by rising awareness of the microbiome’s role in health,
This explosive growth is driven by rising awareness of the microbiome’s role in health, increasing investment in precision medicine, and a growing number of clinical trials targeting diseases from cancer to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
Microbiome-based drugs are therapies that use or target beneficial microbes to restore balance in the body. These drugs can be made from live bacteria (known as live biotherapeutics), microbial metabolites (like short-chain fatty acids), or even fecal microbiota transplants (FMTs).
On the diagnostics side, microbiome testing uses DNA sequencing and other tools to analyze the gut, skin, or oral microbiota. This helps doctors detect disease, monitor treatment response, or personalize therapies based on a patient’s microbial profile.
This isn’t science fiction—it’s happening now. Researchers are developing microbial drugs for conditions like Clostridium difficile infections, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and even neurological disorders like Parkinson’s and autism.