The Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance) and GlaxoSmithKline will pursue a joint drug discovery programme to improve the treatment of tuberculosis (TB).
The programme substantially enhances the worldwide TB drug pipeline by adding several novel classes of compounds that use new mechanisms of action.
The joint research programme consists of a portfolio of four projects intended to yield new compounds that attack Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb) on multiple levels. Drug candidates arising from these projects could shorten the treatment time for patients with TB and, because of their novel mechanisms of action, treat patients who are resistant to conventional therapies, a release from GSK said here.
These compounds will also be screened for their ability to be used simultaneously with HIV/AIDS treatments, known as antiretrovirals (ARVs). TB is a leading cause of death among people living with HIV/AIDS, but today simultaneous TB-HIV treatment is extremely difficult due to drug-drug interactions between some ARVs and current TB drugs, the GSK release says.
Dr. Maria C. Freire, president and CEO of the TB Alliance says, "Ultimately, the revolution in TB treatment will be based on the best combinations of novel drugs. By joining both parties' expertise and committing to affordability, we are making a major step forward in solving a complex global health problem."
"We look forward to leveraging GSK's Diseases of the Developing World program by joining the TB Alliance's initiative to combat tuberculosis," said Dr. Tadataka Yamada, Chairman of Research and Development at GSK.
The research program includes the pleuromutilins, a novel class of antibiotics, and two target-based projects, isocitrate lyase (Icl) and InhA. The fourth project will screen GSK's antimicrobial libraries for novel compounds that have the ability to kill M. tb. The programme will be overseen by a Joint Steering Committee and is based at GSK's Tres Cantos, Spain facility, dedicated to the Diseases of the Developing World.
The TB Alliance will help support 25 full-time scientists working exclusively on the TB drug program. GSK agrees to absorb all remaining overhead costs for the associated projects.
"The TB Alliance's hard work in the past five years has paved the way for a set of major steps forward in TB treatment," Mark Harrington of the Treatment Action Group said adding, "The challenge ahead is to expedite the clinical trials of the most promising drugs in people with TB and with HIV/TB, so we can realize the promise of faster curative treatment that is safe and effective with anti-HIV drugs."
The TB Alliance's goal is to develop an entirely new therapeutic regimen that will shorten and simplify current TB treatment, which currently takes six to nine months to complete. There have been no new TB drugs introduced in over 40 years. In assembling the first global TB drug pipeline since the 1960s, the TB Alliance forges partnerships with industry, research institutes, and academia. In addition to supporting platform technologies, the TB Alliance is developing nitroimidazopyrans, quinolones, macrolides and other classes of antibiotics.