Johannesburg, South Africa – A new therapy for treating tuberculosis could cut the current six-month treatment time in half, expand the number of patients and save millions of lives, a nonprofit that seeks treatments for the disease said Monday.
The Global Alliance for TB Drug Development and Bayer HealthCare AG said they would coordinate clinical trials of the combination therapy for about 2,500 patients in South Africa, Uganda, Brazil, the United States, Canada, Spain, Tanzania and Zambia.
Some trials already have been conducted or are underway in South Africa and Uganda.
The initiative addresses the leading cause of death for people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and is an example of the new public-private partnerships that are focusing attention on so-called “neglected diseases” in the developing world.
Dr. Maria C. Freire, president and chief executive officer of the Alliance, said the new treatment, which could be approved in five years, has the potential to reduce the six months of treatment for tuberculosis by two to three months, lower the risks of developing resistant strains and expand the number of patients receiving treatment.
“Our model of what shorter therapy means is that it literally will save millions of lives,” said Dr. Mel Spigelman, the head of research and development for the Alliance.
About 9 million new active cases of the disease develop each year, and about 2 million people die. According to current projections, 200 million more people will fall ill with TB by 2020, and 35 million will die.
The trials will test the effectiveness of using the antibiotic moxifloxacin in combination with existing tuberculosis drugs.
Moxifloxacin already has been approved in 104 countries for treatment of bacterial respiratory and skin infections.
