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An antibiofilm agent is a chemical, biological, or material-based entity that inhibits the establishment of a bacterial biofilm, impairs its structural or physiological integrity, or promotes the removal or dispersal of an established biofilm. Its defining target is the biofilm mode of growth: a surface-associated, structured bacterial community embedded in a self-produced extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) matrix, rather than bacterial viability alone ^[1]. Antibiofilm activity may therefore involve interference with initial surface attachment, cell–cell aggregation, EPS synthesis or degradation, biofilm-specific regulatory pathways—including quorum-sensing-associated signaling—or the persistence and organization of cells within the biofilm ^[1][2].

The term encompasses agents that prevent biofilm formation and those that disrupt mature biofilms; these activities are related but experimentally and mechanistically distinct. An antibiofilm agent is not necessarily a conventional antibacterial agent: it may reduce biofilm biomass, architecture, adhesion, or matrix-mediated protection without directly killing bacteria, whereas an antimicrobial agent is defined primarily by inhibition of microbial growth or survival ^[2][3]. Conversely, an antibacterial compound may be termed antibiofilm only when it demonstrably acts against biofilm formation or established biofilm communities.