TB Alliance and AstraZeneca to fight tuberculosis

Published: 4-May-2010

Agree to new research to speed up development of TB drugs


The Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance) and AstraZeneca have agreed to accelerate the discovery, development and clinical use of drugs against tuberculosis (TB), including drug-resistant strains of the disease. One in five patients with TB are resistant to at least one of the standard first-line TB drugs according to the World Health Organization.

Under the agreement, the partners will contribute promising TB drug discovery projects into a joint portfolio that they will then co-develop. The drug candidates are expected to be effective against both drug-resistant and drug-sensitive tuberculosis. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The initial projects contributed by the TB Alliance result from its ongoing collaboration with researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers University and New York Medical College in the US. AstraZeneca's projects come from its TB research centre in Bangalore, India. The joint portfolio will be resourced by a core group of scientists based at AstraZeneca’s Bangalore centre, with expertise and funding provided by both organisations.

Promising compounds identified in this collaboration will also be tested in combination with other therapies as part of the Critical Path to TB Drug Regimens, a cross-sector initiative aiming to speed up the delivery of TB drugs to patients.

‘AstraZeneca has a well-established TB drug discovery programme and is a crucial participant in the Critical Path to New TB Regimens initiative. Together, our research promises to bring important advances to TB patients in need,’ said Mel Spigelman, president and ceo of TB Alliance.

Les Hughes, AstraZeneca’s vice president of Infection Discovery added: ‘This collaboration is part of the global partnership that will be needed to conquer the TB epidemic. We are excited to be working with the TB Alliance to help move forward the drug discovery programme and quickly speed promising candidates into clinical development.’

The TB Alliance is a not-for-profit, product development partnership accelerating the discovery and development of TB drugs.

The TB Alliance operates with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Irish Aid, the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DGIS), the UK Department for International Development (DFID), and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

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