Boston/Paris/Dubai, September 26, 2018. Partners In Health (PIH), Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), and Interactive Research & Development (IRD) welcome Unitaid’s commitment to ending Tuberculosis, by investing an additional $21 million in the endTB project. The extension ensures research into shorter, less toxic and more effective treatments for all forms of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). For too long, a tiny fraction—at most, 12%--of patients suffering from MDR-TB each year has benefitted from curative treatment.
The expanded endTB effort seeks regimens that can be delivered to many more of the patients with this airborne, infectious and life-threatening disease. Interim results from the endTB project reveal that the injection-free, 6- or 9-month regimens selected for the endTB trials have excellent potential. endTB observational study results revealed that the balance of safety and efficacy data no longer support systematic use of injectable agents and that routine use of bedaquiline and/or delamanid is safe and effective.
This extension makes a needed dent in the estimated $1.52 billion gapi required to reach the $2.25 billion annual funding for research and development of new TB tools necessary to end the TB epidemicii. Nevertheless, increased investment in new diagnostics and prevention remains essential, as does further funding of clinical trials for TB to produce evidence for safer, more effective and shorter TB regimens.
By incorporating innovation into best practices supported by existing evidence on diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of TB, endTB partners are confident that evidence collected by the endTB project, will finally tip the scale and transform the way we care for all forms of MDR-TB.
i Treatment Action Group: The Ascent Begins: Tuberculosis Research Funding Trends, 2005–2016 http://www.treatmentactiongroup.org/sites/default/files/TB_FUNDING_2017_final.pdf
ii Stop TB Partnership: The Paradigm Shift 2016-2020 Global Plan to End TB http://www.stoptb.org/assets/documents/global/plan/GlobalPlanToEndTB_TheParadigmShift_2016-2020_StopTBPartnership.pdf
