MSF's Suerie Moon spoke in front of a US Senate Committee on promoting new treatments & cures for neglected diseases read more
NEW: The 13th Edition of Untangling the Web of Antiretroviral Price Reductions is now available download it here
VIDEO: MSF's community approach to treating malnutrition in Niger watch it here
WHO's work on the financing of medical research and development is given a fresh start read more
MSF Letter to GFATM on concerns over scale-up of AIDS treatment in light of Board of Directors Meeting read more
New European Parliament Working Group on Innovation & Access launches with support of Access Campaign read more
|
 |
|
 |
MSF urges new approach to TB drug development:
MSF has joined international experts in calling for new drug trials that could speed up the delivery of newer and better medicines for patients suffering from drug-resistant TB. The proposed trials are outlined in a scientific paper published by PLoS to coincide with Union World TB conference in Cape Town in November 2007.
Currently, the main strategy in TB drug development is to develop a completely new regimen of TB drugs. While this is an important objective, it will not be realised for at least a decade.
That is too long to wait for patients suffering from drug-resistant TB at present and the nearly half a million new cases that emerge every year. Current treatment for drug-resistant TB is very long (up to two years), ineffective and produces often intolerable side effects.
A further PLoS paper sets out the urgent case for building capacity to conduct clinical trials in those countries where many drug-resistant TB patients live.
The PLoS papers arose out of discussions held during a conference hosted by MSF in New York to address the gaps in the TB drugs pipeline.
Read more
PLoS Paper on Randomized drug trials 
