Pherecydes Pharma and BIOASTER, the French Technology Research Institute (TRI) for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, announce the signing of a collaboration agreement.

This project, called PhagUTI, is a unique opportunity for the partners to capitalize on BIOASTER’s unique expertise in pre-clinical models and the extensive experience of Pherecydes in the selection, characterization and production of bacteriophages.

In the last few decades, antibiotics have turned life-threatening diseases into short-term disorders and have had a major positive impact on public health and the global economy. Today, however, this progress is under serious threat due to the rapidly increasing emergence of antibiotic resistance.

The increasing threat of resistance to existing antibiotics has been the major driver in the renewed interest in bacteriophages treatment; phages being the natural predators of bacteria.

E. coli is the main pathogen responsible for Urinary Tract Infections (UTI), in particular catheter-associated UTI (CAUTI) and Pyelonephritis. The objective of this project is to demonstrate the in vivo efficacy of phage therapy to treat urinary tract E. coli infections.

“This project will be an important step forward for phage therapy and a new hope for patients,” commented Guy-Charles Fanneau de la Horie, CEO of Pherecydes Pharma. “We are looking forward to working with BIOASTER on this fascinating project.” 

“This collaborative program illustrates BIOASTER’s ambition very well; bringing together partners’ complementary expertise for accelerating innovation towards new effective solutions for the patients,” said Nathalie Garçon, CEO & CSO of BIOASTER. “We are very proud to be part of this exciting project with Pherecydes that will generate new avenues for alternative treatments of multi-drug resistant bacterial infections.”