"Staphefekt" is based on naturally occurring enzymes called endolysins, which are found in viruses and kill bacteria.
Endolysins originate from bacteriophages (phages) - microorganisms that target bacteria.
In nature, phages use bacteria to replicate, in the process destroying the bacterial cell wall with endolysins.
The working mechanism is very different to that of antibiotics, meaning even strains of bacteria resistant to antibiotics are susceptible to the new drug.
"Staphefekt" exhibits several other characteristics including rapid killing of the target bacteria.
And the likelihood of emerging resistance to the drug is 'very limited', because it works independent of the bacterial metabolism - which harbours the ability to resist - and targets a region of the bacterial cell wall less susceptible to mutation.
In addition the drug has been found to only target specific bacteria, leaving those beneficial strains unharmed.