Trends in the global organoid technology and industry: from organogenesis in a dish to the commercialization of organoids

Animal models have been standard methods for non-clinical research in drug development for decades. However, many drugs that have shown satisfactory results in non-clinical studies have failed in the clinical stage, presumably because animal data are not fully convertible to human data. Human organoid technology has recently been considered as an alternative to existing non-clinical testing methods, and it could potentially serve a role as a bridge from non-clinical to clinical trials, compensating for the current limitations arising from non-clinical animal models. For this reason, organoid technology is being utilized in various fields of research including academic studies, disease modeling, drug screening, biobanks, and regenerative medicine. In addition, as organoid technology progressively develops, it has been combined with bioengineering to develop applications from manufacturing to drug evaluation platforms, which is leading to a demand for commercialization of organoids for researchers. In accordance with this global trend, the organoid industry continues to grow throughout the world, and organoid research and the market for organoids have been boosted by the demand for efficient and rapid drug development in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. In this review, we discuss recent global trends in organoid research, based on tissue types and applications, as well as the organoid market and its prospects.