Efforts to try to implement phage therapy in Spain began in early 2019 with the knowledge that many patients needed an alternative to current antibiotic treatments. These patients were affected by infections caused by multi-resistant bacteria that were difficult to eradicate and were looking for an alternative, even outside Spain. After initial contact via email, a meeting was arranged with the AEMPS in June 2019 in which the need for a dossier on the current state of phage therapy research and precedents in other countries was highlighted. The dossier was sent to the agency in July 2020 and was written by a group of researchers and clinicians, some of them belonging to the FAGOMA network. The response from the AEMPS was delayed by the pandemic until December 2021 after several contacts and requests for a response. From this meeting it was concluded to facilitate the compassionate use of phages in Spain, for which it is necessary to speed up all the procedures that this entails (authorizations, import of phage products, etc).

There are currently two ways to access phage therapy in Spain:

The first one is through the Eliava Phage Therapy Center in Tibilisi, Georgia (https://eptc.ge/). This center offers the possibility of administering the therapy in its facilities, but also allows the shipment of phage preparations to any part of the world. The medical team advises in each case the best strategy to follow.
The second option is to obtain the therapy in Spain, which implies that the phage preparations must be produced in a specialized laboratory. At the Queen Astrid Brussels Military Hospital in Belgium, phage mixtures are made to treat patients with a variety of multi-antibiotic-resistant infections, and they sometimes provide treatment for patients from other countries.