The department of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology at Fraunhofer-ITEM (Prof. Dr. Holger Ziehr) develops production processes for active phage ingredients from the phages which have been selected by DSMZ, which will be the active components (active ingredients) of the drug to be administered by inhalation. The aim is to develop a generic phage manufacturing platform that allows the production of new phages in pharmaceutical quality by adjusting only a few parameters. This process is now nearly completed.
In the meantime, selected phages have been produced in the intended scale and quality as active pharmaceutical ingredients, subsequently filled in vials under sterile conditions and handed over to the project partners ITEM in Hannover and Charité in Berlin, where preclinical studies on pharmacological and toxicological issues have already started.
Work at ITEM is increasingly focusing on questions of galenic development (i.e. the composition of the dosage form) and the associated stability and durability of the phages in the test drug. The production of the investigational drug to be used in the clinical study is scheduled for 2021.
Phage4Cure
Developing bacteriophages as approved therapy against bacterial infections