Bacteriophage therapy
Secondly, unlike static chemical pharmaceuticals (e.g., antibiotics) whose formulae may be easily patented, phages themselves as living entities are currently not patentable in North America or Europe.
Figure 7
General Publicity of Phage Therapy and Sources of Information About Phage Therapy
Note. The data presented in this figure were obtained from a survey distributed in south London (UK) areas (estimated postcode locations: SE4, SE5, SE6, SE13, SE21, SE22, SE23, SE24, SE26, SE27, BR3, and CR7) from 2 nd January 2021 to 5 th January 2021 with 553 valid responses and a survey distributed in Beijing Municipality (China) and nearby areas from 31 st December 2020 to 4 th January 2021 with 130 valid responses. (a) is a pie chart showing the publicity of phage therapy in south London areas. 69 out of 553 (12.5%) respondents had heard of phage therapy before in their life, while the generality (484 out of 553, 87.5%) of respondents were either unfamiliar with the presence of bacteriophage therapy or unsure. (b) is a pie chart presenting the publicity of phage therapy in Beijing Municipality and nearby areas. 27 out of 130 (20.8%) respondents had heard of phage therapy before in their life, while the majority (103 out of 130, 79.2%) of respondents were either unfamiliar with the presence of bacteriophage therapy or unsure. (c) is a pie chart showing the specified sources of information on phage therapy given by the 69 respondents in South London areas who had previous knowledge of phage therapy. The most significant proportion is through ‘profession or medical tr aining’. 28% (19) of the respondents heard of phage therapy because they were trained non-clinical professionals or clinical professionals. The second most
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significant proportion is via ‘publications (online and paper)’, contributing a percentage of 26% (1 8). Most respondents in this category acquired information on phage therapy by reading a book or a published article online. 19% (13) of the respondents heard about phage therapy via ‘traditional media (radio, TV, podcast)’. 15% (10) of them knew phage therapy because it was taught at school (general education, non-professional). A few respondents (4%, 3) had previous personal experience before with phage therapy, and another small number (6%, 4) of respondents heard of phage therapy from an unspecified source. An exceedingly minor percentage of respondents (1 in each category, 1%) was informed of phage therapy at work or from a friend. Although engineered phages may be more commercially favourable than their natural counterparts as their preparation procedures are eminently patentable, their bacterial targets can rapidly develop resistance against the patented phages, while the time and cost required for obtaining a patent are unlikely to be paid off. Therefore, other accessible approaches to intellectual property protection are being considered by phage companies. Armata Pharmaceuticals, for example, has filed several patents on the properties, selection and composition of natural phages. 73 Thirdly, the general publicity of phage therapy is still relatively low (Fig. 7). Approximately only 1 to 2 out of 10 people have encountered phage therapy before in their life. A study conducted by Djebara et al. (2019) shows that between 2017 and 2019, a significant increase in external phage therapy requests
73 Armata Pharmaceuticals, Inc. 2017.
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