Lancet article highlights hope in the tuberculosis drug development pipeline, underscores challenges in TB research

According to a paper published yesterday in The Lancet, there is unprecedented progress in the development of the global tuberculosis (TB) drug pipeline with 10 drug candidates currently in clinical development. The paper was written by a team of renowned international experts led by Zhenkun Ma, Chief Scientific Officer for the TB Alliance, a not-for-profit organization accelerating the discovery and development of new TB drugs.

The article, published as part of the Lancet's Series on Tuberculosis, also highlights the significant funding and other challenges associated with the pursuit of life-saving treatment for the nearly two million people who die each year from TB.

Of the 10 compounds in clinical development, three TB drugs are being co-developed by the TB Alliance and its partners. These clinical candidates are basic building blocks for a new generation of novel TB drug regimens that have the potential to greatly reduce the global TB burden by shortening the duration of the current treatment regimen, which currently takes six to 30 months. Results of a recent modeling study in a WHO region suggest that new and improved TB drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics could reduce the global incidence of TB by 71% by 2050. In 2008, there were more than nine million new cases of TB.