Development of Bacteriophage for Treatment of Mycobacterial Infections

Fast-Track proposals will be accepted. Direct-to-Phase II proposals will NOT be accepted. Number of anticipated awards: 2-3 Budget (total costs): Phase I: $300,000 for up to one year; Phase II: $1,500,000 for up to 3 years Background There is an urgent need for new therapeutics products for treating pulmonary diseases caused by mycobacteria. These include tuberculosis (TB), caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and pulmonary infections caused by non-tuberculous mycobacterium (NTM) species such as Mycobacterium abscessus or Mycobacterium avium. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of registered clinical studies focused on the therapeutic use of bacteriophage (i.e. phage ) and there have been several published clinical studies using laboratory phage reagents compassionately and with sometimes beneficial individual results. However, currently there are no mycobacteria-directed, therapeutic phage products in commercial development. Additional research and development are needed to advance new phage therapies to clinical trial testing.