Combining against tuberculosis

Although a handful of new therapies are in the pipeline to treat tuberculosis, it is unlikely that any single molecule will suffice to treat the disease because of the rapid emergence of drug-resistant strains. Drawing on lessons learned from the fight against HIV, the nonprofit Global Alliance for TB Drug Development has partnered with the Critical Path Instituteto map out a strategy for testing combinations of multiple classes of therapeutics in industry'spipeline.

The partnership, called The Critical Path to TB Drug Regimens, hopes to bring companies and regulators together to establish standards for testing combination therapies. The initiative is receiving financial and organizationalsupport from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Health Organization,and it plans to work with 10 companies that have preclinical and clinical TB programs: Johnson & Johnson, sanofi-aventis Group, Pfizer Inc., AstraZeneca plc,Bayer AG, GlaxoSmithKline plc, Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.,Novartis AG,Sequella Inc. and Anacor Pharmaceuticals Inc...