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Other than the last paragraph, the problems you mention are a market failure, which can be dealt with by having all aspects of phage therapy carried out within
by DonaldFisk 10y ago
Other than the last paragraph, the problems you mention are a market failure, which can be dealt with by having all aspects of phage therapy carried out within a government-owned health service, rather than by privately owned pharmaceutical companies.
It's worth noting that phage therapy was successfully used in the Soviet Union, and is still used in Georgia where the phage was "farmed", and that attempts to commercialize it have (as far as I know) invariably failed.
The clinical problems in administration of phage therapy to patients you mention are well-known and limit their use somewhat. But phage therapy could still be a valuable addition in the fight against pathogenic bacteria, rather than a replacement for antibiotics, which are more convenient, and work very well most of the time.
- TeMPOraL 10y agoI wonder if the economic reasons isn't exactly why phage research seems (AFAIR) to be coming mostly out of Russia.
- Fomite 10y agoPhage therapy comes mostly out of Russia because they had much more limited access to antibiotics once the Cold War kicked off, so established some of the best research groups for other alternatives. This was also why Germany, during the 2nd World War, were probably the world's experts in Sulfa.