An important step forward in the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
As antibiotics are losing effectiveness worldwide, bacteriophages are increasingly seen as a promising and targeted alternative. At the same time, access to phage therapy remains limited due to market barriers, regulatory complexity and investment risks.
We are proud to share that the INFECTORY project has been awarded funding by PharmaNL and ZonMw through the Shared Development Infrastructure 2025 programme.
INFECTORY is an initiative of INFECTA, together with partners across the Netherlands including UMC Utrecht, LUMC, FAST and AHAM, aimed at strengthening the infectious disease research ecosystem. The project focuses on upgrading an existing clinical trial unit into a shared GMP production facility for bacteriophages in the Netherlands.
The facility will enable the production of small-scale, cost-effective GMP-batches for early-phase clinical trials and personalized treatments. It will be accessible to academic groups, start-ups and scale-ups, helping to make phage therapy more widely available for research and clinical use.
With INFECTORY, we aim to provide safe and equitable access to phage therapy, produce pharmaceutical-grade bacteriophages for compassionate use and clinical trials, and establish a transparent cost-based access model. The initiative also reduces dependency on imported phages, lowers investment risks for innovators and strengthens the Dutch response to antimicrobial resistance in line with the ambitions of PharmaNL.
Together, this not-for-profit collaboration combines medical expertise, GMP-manufacturing capacity, governance and financing within one shared national infrastructure.
The facility will shorten delivery ties for patients, reduce reliance on non-standard international supply, strengthen the clinical evidence base for phage therapy and support SMEs within the Dutch pharmaceutical ecosystem.
The facility will operate with a non-discriminatory access on a first-come, first-served basis. Production will follow a make-to-order model to minimize waste and risk, while data and manufacturing knowledge will be shared through open science.
Through INFECTORY, we aim to contribute to a more sustainable and accessible pathway for phage therapy, while strengthening the broader response to antimicrobial resistance.