GlaxoSmithKline and TB Alliance renew drug discovery programme

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance) have renewed for a further three years their joint research programme with the goal to improve the treatment of tuberculosis.

The research collaboration, initiated in 2004, currently includes a portfolio of early projects that may ultimately yield new medicines that attack the bacillus Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb), including drug-resistant strains.

Under the agreement GSK and the TB Alliance jointly fund 15 to 25 fully dedicated scientists at GSK's Tres Cantos facility in Spain, where GSK has a team of scientists committed to TB and malaria research.

The joint research programme currently consists of a portfolio of five projects with promise in fighting TB. The two most advanced projects, which are still at the discovery stage, explore two classes of novel antibiotics with unprecedented anti-tubercular mechanisms of action.

They have been shown in non-clinical studies to have potential benefits in fighting persistent forms of M.tb and thereby might offer better chances of shortening treatment duration, which currently takes about six months to complete.

Additional projects seek to identify and attack novel mycobacterium enzymes/targets. By inhibiting enzymes critical to the functioning of M.tb, these approaches may disable the bacterium without harming the human host and may also significantly shorten the duration of treatment.

"We are encouraged by the success of our pioneering work with GSK, which has nearly doubled the number of TB drug discovery projects in our pipeline," said Dr Mel Spigelman, TB Alliance director of research and development.

"While we still have a considerable amount of work ahead, the progress achieved so far demonstrates how this type of alliance can speed the discovery and development of new therapies," added Dr Zhi Hong, senior vice president of the Infectious Diseases Centre of Excellence for Drug Discovery (ID CEDD) at GSK. "The worsening TB epidemic and emerging multi-drug resistant TB demand a new treatment paradigm, one which GSK is committed to find through this collaboration."