Advancing the Treatment of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis this World TB Day
Imagining a TB-free world amidst resurgence during COVID-19 pandemic
NEW YORK (March 24, 2022)—The world continues to battle against two pandemics: COVID-19 and tuberculosis (TB). Today, March 24, marks World TB Day and TB Alliance is joining partners around the globe to raise awareness and continue shining a light on one of the world’s oldest diseases. TB had long been the deadliest infectious disease—until COVID-19. This new pandemic has shown that new tools, diagnostics, drugs, and vaccines can be developed with the right amount of funding and political will. The same resources are needed to bring the TB pandemic under control and make progress toward a TB-free world.
TB Alliance and partners have worked to advance the development of innovations in TB, and to accelerate global accessibility of new treatments. Highlights in these efforts include:
TB Alliance’s ZeNix trial of the BPaL regimen (bedaquiline, pretomanid, and linezolid) in South Africa and Eastern Europe sought to optimize a six-month, all-oral treatment regimen by assessing various dosing modifications of the linezolid component of BPaL. Data presented in 2021 demonstrated improvement in the safety and tolerability of the BPaL regimen with alterations in linezolid dosing with sustained favorable outcomes in 89 precent of all participants.
To date, 16 countries or regulatory bodies have approved pretomanid as part of the BPaL regimen for the treatment of patients with highly drug-resistant forms of TB. Regulatory applications have been submitted to another 16 countries and counting by Viatris, TB Alliance’s global commercialization partner for pretomanid as part of the regimen. Viatris is joined by Macleods, Lupin and Hongqi Pharma in holding a non-exclusive license for pretomanid in high-burden countries. More than 30 countries have procured pretomanid for use in the regimen.
The evidence generated from the Nix-TB and ZeNix clinical trials is now being supplemented through operational research programs such as LIFT-TB, and 11 countries are actively enrolling patients in operational research in regions around the world.
The LIFT-TB initiative continues to broaden and accelerate the adoption and scale up of the regimen. Patients are actively being treated in six of the seven LIFT-TB countries and 563 healthcare professionals have been trained. Regulatory submissions have been submitted in all countries, with two approvals to date (Ukraine and Uzbekistan). Additional information is available on the new LIFT-TB website, launched today in commemoration of World TB Day.
TB Alliance is also working to advance the development of new TB compounds and medicines, with a goal to develop a short, simple, and affordable TB regimen suitable for all people with TB. TB Alliance works closely with partners and researchers to advance both early- and late-stage research.
Though many important advances have been made in recent years, the need to invest in TB research and development is even more apparent amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, which has already reversed hard-won progress against TB. In 2020, the world saw the first increase in TB deaths since 2005, and a 15 percent reduction in the number of people treated for drug-resistant TB.
Visions of a TB-free world can only be realized with global commitment and collaboration.
About TB Alliance
TB Alliance is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to finding faster-acting and affordable drug regimens to fight TB. Through innovative science and with partners around the globe, we aim to ensure equitable access to faster, better TB cures that will advance global health and prosperity. TB Alliance operates with support from Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (United Kingdom), Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research through KfW, Global Disease Eradication Fund (Korea), Global Health Innovative Technology Fund, Indonesia Health Fund, Irish Aid, Korea International Cooperation Agency, Medical Research Council (United Kingdom), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the United States Agency for International Development. For more information, visit www.tballiance.org.