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New Drug Trials for TB

Why DR-TB trials need to happen now

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

PLoS Paper on New Approaches to filling drug pipeline

PLoS Paper on building clinical trials capacity