Reinventing the fight against bacteria,
one phage at a time.

Horizon Europe has just funded three major clinical projects dedicated to phage therapy for antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. Scientifically, this is excellent news. For years, bacteriophage therapy has suffered from a lack of large, randomized, multicenter clinical trials capable of convincing regulators, clinicians, hospitals and payers. The decision to support REPhRAME, P-PEAKS UTI and PHAGE4DAIR therefore marks a turning point. It signals that phage therapy is no longer being treated only as an emergency option, an academic curiosity or a compassionate-use intervention, but as a serious therapeutic field requiring robust clinical evidence. © The Phage Therapy This article does not question the scientific quality of the selected projects. It does not question the competence of the institutions involved , nor the legitimacy of Canada, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Israel or the United States as world-class contributors to biomedical research. Many of the laboratories, ho...

Prosthetic joint infections (PJIs) remain among the most devastating complications following hip and knee replacement surgery. Although relatively uncommon, these infections are associated with prolonged hospitalization, repeated surgical interventions, substantial healthcare costs and, in many cases, permanent functional impairment. Staphylococcus aureus is one of the leading pathogens responsible for acute prosthetic joint infections, owing to its remarkable ability to form biofilms on implant surfaces and develop resistance to multiple antibiotics. Once established, these biofilms create highly structured bacterial communities protected by an extracellular matrix that dramatically reduces antibiotic penetration and shields bacteria from host immune responses, making eradication particularly challenging. © The Phage Therapy Current management of acute prosthetic joint infections often relies on the DAIR procedure—Debridement, Antibiotics and Implant Retention—which aims to preserve t...

Recurrent urinary tract infections (rUTIs) remain one of the most prevalent bacterial diseases worldwide, affecting millions of women each year and placing a substantial burden on healthcare systems. These infections are not only painful and disruptive to daily life, but they also represent a growing clinical challenge in the context of escalating antimicrobial resistance. In many patients, particularly those experiencing recurrent episodes, antibiotics gradually lose their effectiveness. Repeated exposure promotes the emergence of resistant bacterial strains, alters the composition of the microbiota, and often fails to prevent relapse. As a result, patients frequently enter a cycle of infection, treatment, temporary relief, and recurrence that can persist for years. © The Phage Therapy A central factor underlying this persistence is the ability of uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) to form biofilms within the urinary tract. These biofilms are structured bacterial communities embedd...

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has become one of the greatest threats to modern medicine. According to the World Health Organization, bacterial pathogens resistant to antibiotics are responsible for an increasing number of deaths worldwide and threaten decades of medical progress. Chronic wound infections, recurrent urinary tract infections, prosthetic joint infections and numerous healthcare-associated infections are becoming progressively more difficult to treat as conventional antibiotics lose their effectiveness. Recognising the urgency of the situation, the United Nations General Assembly identified antimicrobial resistance as a global health emergency in 2016, while the World Health Organization continues to rank AMR among the ten leading threats to global health. ©The Phage Therapy Against this backdrop, the European Union has launched its most ambitious funding initiative dedicated to clinical phage therapy to date. Through the Horizon Europe topic "Testing safety and effi...