Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency about expediting the use of phage treatments in last-resort medical cases.

The Government is committed to supporting innovation and the development of new, safe, and effective medicines. Officials in the Department are working closely with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to explore the use of bacteriophages, also known as phages.

Although there are currently no licensed bacteriophage medicines in the United Kingdom, patients may still access them as part of a clinical trial, as unlicensed medicines, or as medicines prepared under the supervision of a pharmacist.

The MHRA is actively developing non-binding, regulator-agnostic information to help innovators understand what type of quality, safety, and efficacy data is needed by regulators to evaluate phage products for market authorisation.