Phage therapy has been a valuable asset since the 1920s to deal with pathogenic bacterial infections, and has been practised ever since, especially in the former Soviet Union and in eastern Europe. The western world remained sceptical and resorted to the widespread use of antibiotics as soon as they became available. Now that antibiotic resistance among pathogenic bacteria has spread alarmingly and no really new antibiotic compounds are in the pipeline, renewed attention should be directed to the use of phages as antimicrobials in medicine as well as in the health and the agro-food sector. The history of early phage use, its successes and problems and the current developments in phage research, production and applications in phage control and therapy are critically reviewed in this context. (c) 2013 Society of Chemical Industry