(Karen Pauls/ CBC News) — Steven Theriault is convinced he has the solution to an urgent global public health threat — antibiotic resistance.
But he can’t get his bacteria-killing viruses approved through what he calls Canada’s rigid and outdated regulatory system.
“The next big focus in science is actually genetics and live organisms. … I think we’re going to create some really interesting therapies and technologies,” he said during a recent CBC News visit to his lab.
“Hopefully in the future, the Canadian government will change the regulatory process, because this is actually something that will save lives in Canada as well as treat our animal flocks in Canada. And right now, we can’t use it.”
Theriault is a former paramedic who got his PhD in molecular genetics and virology and then spent 15 years working on projects like the Ebola vaccine at Canada’s only Level 4 National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg. He left in 2018 to start his own biotech company, Cytophage. (…)