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Well, the only way to answer that question is to do some more research on phages, and I guarantee you, the funding for antibiotics research is more than 100x that for phage therapies, in large part because of regulation.

Phage therapies are actually used regularly in Georgia, Russia, and other parts of the former Soviet Union, in part because they couldn't get access to antibiotics during WW2 and right afterwards.

You can do the math as to whether we've passed the point of diminishing marginal returns on antibiotics.



Look for actual numbers, the USSR for example did quite a bit of Phage research and then gave it up. So, no it's not 100x in favor of Antibiotics, which get vastly less funding than you might think.


They didn't give it up, it's still practiced today: "Phage therapy is used in Russia, Georgia and Poland" [1]. Also [2].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phage_therapy

[2] https://www.phagetherapycenter.com/pii/PatientServlet?comman...


As a treatment of last resort sure, as an area of active research it took a massive hit at the time due to poor results relative to antibiotics.


Yes, before computers and labs-on-chips, growing them is difficult and time-consuming and maybe even dangerous, making them worse than antibiotics of the time. But now with MRSA spreading everywhere and chips that could measure purity, we should be able to make them cheaper and safer with fewer side effects.




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