Current and future market applications of new genomic techniques

This report presents a review of market applications of new genomic techniques (NGTs). For the purposes of this study, NGTs are defined as ‘techniques that are able to alter the genetic material of an organism, developed after the publication of EU Directive 2001/18/EC’.The study covers NGT applications in agri-food, industrial and medicinal sectors that have resulted in applications that are already being marketed (commercial stage), are at a confirmed pre-market development stage (pre-commercial stage) or are at a research and development (R & D) stage but showing market potential (advanced and early R & D stage). The scope includes the use of NGTs in any kind of plant, mushroom, animal or microorganism or in human cells.Data on NGT applications were collected from multiple sources, including information available online, consultation of experts and an ad hoc survey of public and private technology developers. The NGT applications identified were classified, using the information available, as being at the following development stages.NGTs, especially those based on clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR), are being actively and increasingly used in all the sectors analysed. Currently, few NGT applications are marketed worldwide: one plant product, one microorganism for release into the environment and several microorganisms used for contained production of commercial molecules. There are, however, about 30 identified applications (in plants, animals and microorganisms) at a pre-commercial stage in the pipeline that could reach the market in the short term (within 5 years). In addition, the medicinal sector is actively using NGTs to tackle several human diseases, and in many cases applications have already reached patients, in phase I and phase I/II clinical trials.