In this special episode I spoke with an international guest from my native country, Republic of Georgia, and global ambassador of a critical alternative solution against tough chronic infections and antimicrobial resistance on behalf of a global center of excellence in bacteriophage therapy, discovered over 100 years ago. My guest, Davit Sturua, Doctor of Business Administration, Public Health and Medical Tourism expert, is the director of the Eliava Phage Therapy Center, a global leader in real-world, clinical, research, and commercial experience with naturally occurring bacteriophage treatments. He discusses the Georgian center's 100-year old history and evolution, its extensive experience treating patients across 84 countries, explains the current global public health problem, and provides an update along with rationale on the recent growth in clinical studies investigating phage therapy across the globe in this part 1 of 2 episodes on this topic. Watch this episode with English subtitles to learn about how you, your friends, family, healthcare payers and experts, healthcare providers, patients and their loved ones can consider alternative options via telemedicine or in person to treat chronic, tough bacterial infections or prevent antimicrobial resistance. Stay tuned for the next episode (part 2) on this topic with my guest Dr. Dea Nizharadze, Chief Physician at the Eliava Phage Therapy Center, who delves deeper into the typical course of treatment, patient journey, and various scientific attributes of phage treatments.
0:00 Introduction
0:08 Introduction in English
2:19 Special Guest Mr. Davit Sturua, Director of Eliava Phage Therapy Center Introduction in English
4:34 Episode Introduction in Georgian (English subtitles)
4:53 Overview of Part 1: Overview of 100-year history of Eliava Phage Therapy Center, its advances, growth, current goals and Part 2: Scientific Rationale for phage treatment, appropriate patients, typical course of treatment, and access to care for patients worldwide
5:54 Davit's personal inspiration and history at the Eliava Center
10:27 How is EPTC raising awareness about phage therapy outside of Georgia? The center has treated patients from 84 different countries in 2023 alone. The majority of patients internationally who obtain care from EPTC suffer from various antibiotic-resistant or chronic infections.
12:20 5 million patients die from antimicrobial resistantce every year - underestimation, with tens of millions of deaths projected by 2050
13:04 Future Scientific and Commercial goals of Eliava Center to expand globally, standardize phage production to meet GMP standards, conduct randomized clinical studies and secure access for patients worldwide
15:23 Challenges in scaling phage production and quality standardization.
Georgia is currently a global leader in commercial production of bacterial phage treatments. While only a few years ago there were only a handful of clinical studies conducted globally, currently there are over 50 clinical studies in 2023-2024 alone over the past year being conducted in the United States alone. Similarly, other European countries, particularly Great Britain are also actively pursuing and advancing clinical research in bacteriophage therapies. Government and research funding in phage treatment is therefore continuing to grow rapidly.
18:33 Final Greetings - Conclusion of Part 1. Invitation to partner across Europe and the U.S. with the Eliava Phage Therapy Center