The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the use of bacteriophages in critically ill COVID-19 patients with secondary bacterial infections that are multiply resistant to antibiotics.

The biotechnology company Adaptive Phage Therapeutics has received approval to use phage preparations for the treatment of secondary antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections (pneumonia and sepsis) in COVID-19 patients. The company owns a large bank of bacteriophages, allowing it to quickly develop phage preparations for the treatment of bacterial infections in specific patients. The company is collaborating with the renowned American medical center, the Mayo Clinic.

In the United States, phage preparations are approved for use under the Expanded Access Program, meaning they are used in cases where standard treatment regimens are ineffective. Bacteriophages are successfully used to treat patients with Acinetobacter baumannii, Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections with multiple antibiotic resistance. Phage preparations have already been used to eliminate an outbreak of secondary infections caused by a hospital-acquired multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii strain among patients with severe COVID-19 at a Texas hospital.