Who is building the field
Phage therapy is not a fringe idea — it is a century-old practice (continuous since 1923 in Tbilisi) now meeting modern molecular biology, venture capital, and regulatory science. Here is the landscape, current to mid-2026.
Academic & clinical centers
Where patients are actually treated
Hover or tap a node — 12 of the centers treating patients and building phage banks worldwide.
Eliava Institute & Phage Therapy Center
Tbilisi, Georgia
Founded 1923 — the world’s oldest phage institute; treats antibiotic-resistant infections with off-the-shelf and custom preparations.
eliava-institute.org ↗Yale Center for Phage Biology & Therapy
New Haven, USA
Home of the OMKO1 “evolutionary trap” phage (Turner/Chan) that forces Pseudomonas to trade away antibiotic resistance.
phage.yale.edu ↗UC San Diego IPATH
La Jolla, USA
North America’s first dedicated phage-therapy center (2018), born from the Patterson rescue; runs compassionate-use and trials.
idgph.ucsd.edu/research/center-innovative-phage-applications-and-therapeutics ↗Hirszfeld Institute — Phage Therapy Unit
Wrocław, Poland
The first ethically approved phage-therapy facility in the EU (2005), treating chronic infections under experimental-therapy rules.
hirszfeld.pl/en ↗Queen Astrid Military Hospital
Brussels, Belgium
Operates the pioneering “magistral phage” framework — phages compounded as tailor-made per-patient preparations.
Baylor TAILOR Labs
Houston, USA
At-cost academic lab building personalized phage matched to a patient’s strain; spun out the biotech Phiogen.
www.bcm.edu/research/research-centers/tailor ↗Phage Directory & Phage Australia
Global / Australia
A worldwide network that sources matched phages and runs a standardized precision-phage pipeline (Westmead).
phage.directory ↗Citizen Phage Library
Exeter, UK
A citizen-science biobank (Temperton lab, University of Exeter) where volunteer samples are mined for phages against resistant pathogens.
biosciences.exeter.ac.uk/staff/profile/index.php?web_id=ben_temperton ↗A century in the making
The history of phage therapy, 1915 → 2026
- 1915
A “bacteriolytic agent”
Frederick Twort publishes the first description of what we now know as bacteriophages, in The Lancet.
- 1917
Phages discovered & named
Félix d’Hérelle independently discovers bacteriophages at the Pasteur Institute and coins the term “bacteriophage.”
- 1919
First clinical use
d’Hérelle uses phages to treat dysentery — the birth of phage therapy.
- 1923
The Eliava Institute
George Eliava founds the world’s first dedicated phage institute in Tbilisi, Georgia — still operating today.
- 1940s
Antibiotics eclipse phages
Penicillin arrives; the West abandons phage therapy. It continues, uninterrupted, in the USSR and Georgia.
- 2016
The Patterson rescue
Tom Patterson becomes the first US patient cured of a systemic infection with IV phage — reviving the field.
- 2018
IPATH & the magistral era
UC San Diego founds North America’s first phage center; Belgium launches its pragmatic “magistral” framework.
- 2019
First engineered phages
A genetically engineered phage cocktail treats a teenager’s Mycobacterium abscessus infection (Nature Medicine).
- 2022
Editing the microbiome
Federici et al. suppress an IBD-driving Klebsiella clade with a 5-phage cocktail — precision microbiome editing (Cell).
- 2024
Into registrational trials
Locus’s CRISPR-phage enters a registrational Phase 2/3; the Belgian 100-patient cohort is published (Nature Microbiology).
- 2025
First randomized signal
Armata’s AP-SA02 reports the first randomized efficacy signal for IV phage in bloodstream infection.
- 2026
The inflection point
Multiple programs near pivotal trials — yet no phage drug is approved in the US or EU. The decade ahead decides it.
Companies
The commercial pipeline
No phage drug is approved yet — but several are in registrational or late-stage trials. The leaders, with their lead programs:
Armata Pharmaceuticals
Clinical-stageUSA · public (ARMP)
Lead AP-SA02 (IV, S. aureus bacteremia) posted the first randomized phage efficacy signal in bloodstream infection; Phase 3 planned.
www.armatapharma.com ↗Locus Biosciences
RegistrationalUSA · private
CRISPR-Cas3 “crPhage”; LBP-EC01 for E. coli UTI is in registrational Phase 2/3 (BARDA-funded) — the most advanced program.
www.locus-bio.com ↗BiomX
Clinical-stageUSA/Israel · public (PHGE)
Acquired Adaptive Phage Therapeutics (2024); BX211 (diabetic-foot osteomyelitis) positive Phase 2; BX004 (CF Pseudomonas) in Phase 2b.
www.biomx.com ↗Felix Biotechnology
Clinical-stageUSA · private
Evolutionary-trap phages licensed from Yale; YPT-01 (inhaled Pseudomonas) tested in the Yale CYPHY trial.
www.felixbt.com ↗Intralytix
Food + therapeuticUSA · private
Pioneer of FDA-cleared food-safety phages (ListShield, EcoShield) plus therapeutics EcoActive and ShigActive.
www.intralytix.com ↗SNIPR Biome
Clinical-stageDenmark · private
CRISPR-armed phage; SNIPR001 (oral gut E. coli decolonization to prevent bloodstream infection) reported positive Phase 1 (2026).
www.sniprbiome.com ↗Eligo Bioscience
Preclinical/Phase 1France · private
“Eligobiotics” — phage-derived vectors delivering CRISPR payloads to edit bacteria; lead program is a skin-microbiome (acne) therapeutic.
eligo.bio ↗Phiogen
EmergingUSA · private
Baylor/TAILOR spinout (2023) industrializing the personalized, evolution-guided phage pipeline.
www.phiogenpharma.com ↗Status notes: BiomX acquired Adaptive Phage Therapeutics in 2024. France’s PHAXIAM (formerly Pherecydes) entered judicial liquidation in 2025 and is listed here only as historical context, not above.
Landmark cases & trials
The moments that moved the field
The Patterson rescue — Acinetobacter baumannii
In 2016 Tom Patterson became the first US patient treated with IV phage for a systemic infection; nine lytic phages cured a disseminated MDR Acinetobacter infection. The case revived US phage therapy and led to IPATH.
Schooley, Strathdee et al., Antimicrob Agents Chemother 2017 (PMID 28807909)
Engineered phages for Mycobacterium abscessus
A 15-year-old with cystic fibrosis received a three-phage cocktail (two genetically engineered to be lytic) after lung transplant — the first therapeutic use of engineered phages, with marked clinical improvement.
Dedrick, Hatfull et al., Nature Medicine 2019; Cell 2022
The Klebsiella–IBD cocktail
A 5-phage cocktail suppressed an IBD-driving Klebsiella clade across mouse, ex-vivo, and a healthy-volunteer Phase 1 — without off-target dysbiosis. The cleanest proof of precision microbiome editing to date.
Federici et al., Cell 2022 (PMID 35931020)
AP-SA02 (diSArm) — the first randomized bloodstream signal
A Phase 2a RCT of IV phage adjunctive to antibiotics for S. aureus bacteremia reported an exploratory clinical response of 88% vs 58% — the first randomized efficacy signal for IV phage. Not yet pivotal.
Armata Pharmaceuticals, IDWeek 2025 (conference-tier)
PhagoBurn — the cautionary tale
An EU burn-wound RCT stopped early for weak efficacy — because the cocktail lost titre in manufacturing and patients received ~10,000× below the intended dose. A lesson in formulation, not a failure of the biology.
Jault et al., Lancet Infect Dis 2019 (PMID 30292481)
Funders & initiatives
Who is paying for it
NIH / NIAID & the ARLG
USA
Primary US funder; launched the first NIH-funded phage clinical trial and a dedicated phage-therapy funding call (2024).
BARDA
USA
Funds advanced AMR development; its flagship phage award (up to ~$85M) backs Locus Biosciences’ LBP-EC01.
CARB-X
Global
Non-profit accelerator (launched by BARDA & Wellcome, 2016) funding early-stage antibacterials including phage.
AMR Action Fund
Global
~$1B industry-backed fund investing in late-stage antibacterials and phage developers.
Wellcome Trust / EU Horizon Europe
UK / EU
Co-funded CARB-X and large phage-RCT calls; key non-US public funders.