Have your physician contact IPATH. We will request your physician to share details of your case with us so that we can advise them if phage therapy is a viable option. You'll need to provide your physician or referring facility with authorization to share this information with us. If our medical team confirms that you are eligible for phage therapy, we will ask that your physician complete the following steps:
1. If upon review of your medical history you become a candidate under IPATH, your physician will need to send your bacterial culture to a laboratory where our collaborators will determine if they have bacteriophage(s) in their phage library active against the bacterium or bacteria causing your illness. This step might take 1-3 weeks once the bacterial isolates have been shipped. There is a possibility that matching phages will not be identified.
2. If our collaborators can confirm that they have phages active against your organism, IPATH or your physician will submit an
EIND application to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). If you are not being treated at UC San Diego, your physician would need to subsequently notify a local investigational review board (usually at the hospital) about the use of phage therapy according to the procedures outlined by the FDA’s EIND process. We will be able to provide your physician with advice on how this is accomplished.
3. The propagation and purification of a particular phage cocktail for clinical use could take up to 4 weeks. We will make sure your physician acquires the phage(s) as soon as possible for your treatment.