Pherecydes Pharma Société anonyme announced the enrollment of the 1st patient in the PhagoDAIR Phase II clinical trial. PhagoDAIR is the world's first study of phage therapy conducted in osteoarticular infections on prostheses caused by Staphylococcus aureus. Its protocol was approved by the ANSM last December and by the Ethics Committee in February 2022.

Pherecydes Pharma is now actively recruiting patients for this clinical trial, the first of which has just been enrolled in France, at the Hospices Civils de Lyon. The study, which will also be conducted in other European countries, plans to include 64 patients with S. aureus infection of the knee or hip joint, divided between the phage therapy group and the control group, which will receive placebo in addition to the standard of care. Patients treated with phage therapy will receive the anti-S aureus phages active on their strain, selected due to Pherecydes Pharma's phagogram.

The standard of care will consist of the surgical procedure called DAIR combined with a suppressive antibiotic therapy. The assessment will be carried out 12 weeks after the phages are applied and the follow-up of the patients will last 2 years. The first results are expected at the end of 2023 and the follow-up of patients will continue until the 1st half of 2025.

Based on the preliminary results of the Phase II trial, Pherecydes Pharma will conduct a Phase III trial in the same indication which could start in 2024.