Dr Deborah Birx
Chief Executive Officer, Armata Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Los Angeles, CA, USA
As antibiotic resistance increases, Armata Pharmaceuticals CEO Dr Deborah Birx shares how Armata is reimagining how we treat bacterial infections, pioneering novel phage therapy for greater clinical impact with minimal harm.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is rapidly becoming one of the greatest challenges faced by modern medicine, threatening to render current antibiotic treatments of bacterial infections completely ineffective. Deaths attributable to bacterial AMR are around 1.27 million1, with associated deaths reaching almost 5 million1, figures expected to soar without an effective response.
Rising global threat of AMR
Dr Deborah Birx, MD, has spent her career in global health innovation responding to some of the world’s most complex infectious diseases.
“We simply can’t keep making antibiotics that are only slightly better than the last. We need to become more precise in how we treat infection,” she explains.
Phage therapy: purposeful, precise, powerful
Phage therapy, which uses viruses called bacteriophages, also known as phages, offers an exciting alternative to traditionally used broad-spectrum antibiotics. Highly specific by design, phages target and destroy only the harmful bacteria they’re programmed to eliminate.
“Antibiotics kill both good and bad bacteria, as they’re broad-spectrum and not selective. Phages are different, targeting only the harmful bacteria and leaving the healthy gut, mouth and skin microbiome intact. This is an incredibly powerful discovery, as our microbiome is precious.”
Highly specific by design, phages target and destroy only the harmful bacteria they’re programmed to eliminate.
Bold science for impossible problems
Armata Pharmaceuticals is dedicated to meeting the global challenge of antibiotic resistance, developing high-impact, high-purity phage therapeutics for patients with high unmet medical needs. And the evidence speaks for itself: the latest Phase 2 clinical trial evaluated phage therapy in Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia with extremely promising results.
“One hundred percent of patients who received antibiotics plus phage therapy were cured, something which simply doesn’t happen in complicated Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia. We also saw earlier, more effective responses.”
With such groundbreaking results, the team at Armata has been working hard to prepare for a potential pivotal licensing trial, perfecting the science of producing clean, injectable, safe phages to one day bring this transformative antibacterial therapy to market.
“Someone has to take that first bold step to show that phage plus antibiotic therapy is superior to the standard treatment alone. We’re on the precipice of being able to treat not just Staphylococcus aureus, but a whole range of bacterial infections.”
[1] Naghavi, M. et al. 2021. Global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance 1990–2021: a systematic analysis with forecasts to 2050. The Lancet
Armata Pharmaceuticals is helping redefine the future of treating antibiotic-resistant and difficult-to-treat bacterial infections. Visit their website at https://www.armatapharma.com/.
