Phage Forward
Therapeutics
- Thomas Rose, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium (Coordinator)
- Isabelle Huys, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium (Observer)
- Laurent Debarbieux, Institut Pasteur, France (Observer)
- Christine Rohde, DSMZ, Germany (Observer)
- Andrzej Gorski, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland (Observer)
- Jean-Paul Pirnay, Queen Astrid Military Hospital, Belgium (Observer)
- Gilbert Verbeken, Queen Astrid Military Hospital, Belgium (Observer)
- Maya Merabishvili, Queen Astrid Military Hospital, Belgium (Observer)
Antibiotic resistant bacteria represent a major threat to public health. Phage therapy, the use of bacterial viruses (phages) to combat bacterial infections, is increasingly put forward as an alternative/addition to antibiotic therapy. However, the conventional medicinal product (drug) pathways are developed to cater for static drugs such as aspirin or antibiotics, but are less suitable for sustainable (evolving) page therapy products. As such, there are no phage medicinal products on the Western markets, and very few phages are available to conduct the necessary safety and efficacy studies. PhageForward’s aim was to overcome the hurdles that slow down the (re)introduction of phage therapy in Western medicine. In concrete, PhageForward facilitated a series of meetings, workshops and a scientific publication, which contributed to the awareness that there is a need for an adapted phage therapy regulatory framework and to the elaboration and implementation of such a regulation. This lead to the implementation of a prototype phage therapy framework in Belgium, which is slowly spreading to other EU Member States such as France, Germany and The Netherlands.