Antimicrobial Resistance killed over a million people in 2019. That figure is expected to rise to ten million by 2050. Antibiotics remain vital to modern medicine, but this hidden pandemic of drug-resistant superbugs is driving scientists to explore possible alternatives. One type of therapy in particular is attracting serious scientific interest: bacteriophages.
Phages are viruses that can destroy bacteria. In the 1920s, phage therapies were used widely against infections, but much of the world abandoned the idea following the discovery of penicillin. Some parts of the former Soviet Union, though, have continued to use phage therapies. What can governments and international companies learn from this medicine?