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Randomized clinical trials represent the gold standard in therapeutic research. Nevertheless, observational cohorts of patients treated for multidrug-resistant (MDR) or rifampin-resistant (RR) tuberculosis (TB) also play an important role in generating evidence to guide MDR/RR TB care.

At a time when programs were struggling to design effective regimens for the treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), the marketing authorization of bedaquiline and delamanid was a critical development in the MDR-TB treatment landscape. However, despite their availability for routine programmatic use, the uptake of these drugs has remained slow; concerns included a lack of evidence on safety and efficacy and the need to protect the new drugs from the development of acquired resistance. As part of the endTB Project, we aimed to address these barriers by generating evidence on safety and efficacy of bedaquiline or delamanid based MDR-TB regimens.

Rapid diagnostics, newer drugs, repurposed medications, and shorter regimens have radically altered the landscape for treating rifampicin-resistant TB (RR-TB) and multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB). There are multiple ongoing clinical trials aiming to build a robust evidence base to guide RR/MDR-TB treatment, and both observational studies and programmatic data have contributed to advancing the treatment field.

Active pharmacovigilance (PV) is recommended for TB programmes, notably for multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) patients treated with new drugs. Launched with the support of UNITAID in April 2015, endTB (Expand New Drug markets for TB) facilitated treatment with bedaquiline (BDQ) and/or delamanid of >2600 patients in 17 countries, and contributed to the creation of a central PV unit (PVU).

Recent World Health Organization guidance on drug-resistant tuberculosis treatment de-prioritised injectable agents, in use for decades, and endorsed all-oral longer regimens. However, questions remain about the role of the injectable agent, particularly in the context of regimens using new and repurposed drugs. We compared the effectiveness of an injectable-containing regimen to that of an all-oral regimen among patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis who received bedaquiline and/or delamanid as part of their multidrug regimen.

You will find some details about the endTB project in this 2-page infographic.

 

You may read the full article here: Recently developed drugs for the treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis: a research and development case study - published in April 2022 

Authors: Perrin C, Athersuch K, Elder G, et al - BMJ Global Health 2022;7:e007490.

Report of fatal and life-threatening adverse events during endTB post-marketing safety surveillance of new and repurposed TB drugs

As part of the endTB project and observational study (2015-2019), rigorous post-marketing safety surveillance for all patients (referred to as "endTB patients") who began MDR/RR-TB regimens containing bedaquiline or delamanid was performed. This safety surveillance conformed to the "advanced" active TB Drug Safety Monitoring and Management (aDSM) package as defined by WHO (WHO/HTM/TB/2015.28).

A comprehensive summary of the study protocol of the endTB clinical trial has been published in the peer-reviewed journal Trials. Below you will find the link to the open-access article.