Novartis and TB Alliance sign five-year deal

The Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases in Singapore and the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development have announced a five-year partnership to develop new drugs for the treatment of tuberculosis. The goal is to produce faster-acting therapies against all forms of the disease, caused by the Mycobaterium tuberculosis, which some estimates claim infects one third of the world's population.

The NITD, founded in 2002, is the result of a collaborative research investment between the Swiss drug major Novartis and the Singapore Economic Development Board. Paul Herrling, the Institute's chairman and head of corporate research at Novartis, said: "our dedicated research team will leverage expertise gained throughout the past six years of [the] NITD's TB efforts in partnership with the TB Alliance."