FAGOTERAPIA LAB S.R.L.

Before the discovery of antibiotics, bacteriophages — viruses that infect and kill bacteria — were already being used as therapeutic agents. Then penicillin rendered them obsolete. Today, with the global antibiotic resistance crisis threatening to render the most common bacterial infections untreatable, bacteriophages are returning to the centre of medical research as an alternative or complement to antibiotics. FAGOTERAPIA LAB, a Tuscan startup based in San Giuliano Terme, has built its mission around this renaissance — developing phage-based therapies to treat complex bacterial infections resistant to conventional antibiotics. The institutional validation is significant: Fagoterapia Lab is part of IPCEI Med4Cure, the first major project of common European interest in the health value chain, bringing together companies and research institutions from multiple member states to develop advanced production and therapeutic capabilities in Europe. The target is doctors, healthcare facilities, laboratories, and patients involved in therapeutic pathways for complex bacterial infections — often clinical cases where conventional therapies have already failed. The B2B custom services model reflects the nature of phage therapy: phages must be selected and adapted specifically to the target bacterium, making each therapy intrinsically personalised. In a context where the WHO has classified antibiotic resistance as one of the ten greatest global public health threats, Fagoterapia Lab works on one of the most urgent clinical problems of the next decade.