South Korean biotech firm Microbiotix and the West Africa Centre for Innovation Research and Care (WAFCIRC) have partnered with the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi (KNUST) and clinicians and researchers in Ghana to develop new approaches to tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR), including early work on bacteriophage therapy for hard-to-treat lung infections.
The collaboration brings together researchers from multiple countries and was formalised at a research agreement signing ceremony. The project focuses on addressing rising resistance to existing antibiotics and limited treatment options for patients infected with multidrug resistant organisms.
Dr. John Adabie Appiah, a paediatric critical care physician at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), said the study targets multidrug resistant infections, with an initial focus on Pseudomonas, a bacterium linked to severe lung infections.
He said clinicians are increasingly encountering pan resistant infections, where available medicines no longer work.
“Most of the patients die anyway,” he said.
Dr. Appiah said the partnership aims to develop tools known as bacteriophages, or phages, as part of efforts to explore alternatives where antibiotics fail. The initial phase, he added, will study compassionate use of phage therapy for patients presenting with pan resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa lung infection.
He said the one year project, with potential extension, would also support training and laboratory capacity through new diagnostic equipment.
Joshu Opoku Mainoo, executive director of WAFCIRC, said the project is intended to deepen research and strengthen healthcare through innovation.
“In fact, we know that infection is a problem in the world. And if you look at the current data, about 50 million persons are affected with severe infection every year and about 11 million die; they think this is a call to work together as a team,” he said.
He said the partnership is expected to improve care for patients facing antimicrobial resistance and limited treatment options.
Prof. Ji Woong Jang, managing director of Microbiotix, said the company is developing an intravenous formulation for use in patients with lower respiratory tract infectious disease and pan antimicrobial resistance.
“Chronic setting does not matter,” he said. “Clinical symptoms get exaggerated; the key is that a patient can be in jeopardy of developing sepsis, such as a bloodstream infection and sepsis.”
Jang said Microbiotix plans to invest in laboratory systems needed to test phage activity and measure phage counts.
“We can do things like colony-counting assays or phage subject ability testing, and that's part of our initial investment to set up the lab to exactly measure phage counts, from whether that patient would benefit from this phage therapy to what we will provide,” he said.
He said the longer-term aim is to expand treatment options for bloodstream infections and sepsis, particularly for patients in intensive care.
“Step by step, we expect to have treatment options for bacteraemia and sepsis so that patients and loved ones admitted to ICU units can have these options,” he said.
Jang said the collaboration will also target other high priority pathogens identified by the World Health Organization as critical concerns, including Klebsiella and Acinetobacter.
“So, our common enemy would be our pathogens,” he said.
Other officials present at the ceremony included Prof. Dong Eun Yong, Professor E. O. D. Addo-Yobo (KNUST and WAFCIRC), Professor Otchere Addae-Mensah (Allied Health, KNUST), Dr. Larko D. Owusu (KATH and WAFCIRC), Dr. Beatrice Edusei (WAFCIRC and KATH), Dr. Charles Martyn-Dickens (KATH), Mr. Emmanuel Appiah Sam (WAFCIRC), Professor Jerry John Kponyo (Director, Office of Grants and Research, KNUST), Dr. Mrs. Lilian Antwi Boateng, and the Dean of Allied Health, Professor Yaw Amo Wiafe.
