Namur biotech receives a European award

At the 10th BioFIT, the European event for technology transfer, academia-industry collaborations and innovation in life sciences, the award for the most innovative life sciences start-up in Europe was awarded to Vésale Bioscience. The Namur-based Biotech company specialises in phagotherapy, which treats bacterial infection through the production of specific bacteriophages.

Antibiotic resistance is one of the most serious threats to global health, according to the WHO. Vésale Bioscience is therefore working to develop alternatives to antibiotics in order to provide personalised solutions to the major problem of multi-resistant bacteria.

Specifically, the Vésale Pharma spin-out created in 2018 has developed a phagogram that uses artificial intelligence to obtain a decentralised diagnosis in three hours instead of the usual three days. A personalised therapy is then proposed, based on a library of phages (viruses that infect only bacteria) containing more than a hundred references. As this technology can be easily reproduced in specialised centres, its marketing in 2023 should be an effective response to a global public health problem.

This award confirms the importance of phagotherapy and the contribution of Belgian scientists to the fight against multidrug-resistant infections.