How to fight against antibiotic resistant bacteria ? One of the promising methods is that of phagotherapy. It consists in using phages (or bacteriophages), viruses which attack only bacteria, to eliminate the latter when the antibiotics no longer succeed. But this process is slow to take hold, while antibiotic resistance is gaining more and more ground. The National Assembly met on February 18 to take stock of phagotherapy and decide on its regulatory framework.
Changing regulations
This technique has been around since the 1940s, but the success of antibiotics quickly stole the show after World War II. To be effective, you have to make the phage specific to a single bacterium: the one that is pathogenic and that you want to destroy. They can be bacteria responsible for pulmonary, urinary, bone or intestinal infections. Although phages are found in large quantities in nature, and even in our bodies, specifying them to target a single species of bacteria requires pharmaceutical know-how. Currently, these maneuvers are only carried out in Russian, Polish and Georgian laboratories. Since 2011, the European Union classifies these viruses in the category of drugs. In France, the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) is wondering about a marketing authorization (AMM) for bacteriophages. Currently, only use in the context of a clinical trial (with temporary authorization for use, or ATU) is permitted in our country.
Antibiotic resistance threatens global health
Antibiotic resistance is, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), “one of the biggest threats to global health“. It is therefore urgent to find alternatives to antibiotics, otherwise simple bacterial infections (pneumonia, urinary tract infections, tuberculosis…) could become deadly again if all known antibiotics can no longer fight them. In Europe, the WHO estimates the annual number of deaths due to antibiotic resistance at 25,000.
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