MSF urges new approach to TB drug development:

MSF has joined international experts in calling for new drug trials that could speed up the delivery of newer and better medicines for patients suffering from drug-resistant TB.  The proposed trials are outlined in a scientific paper published by PLoS to coincide with Union World TB conference in Cape Town in November 2007.

Currently, the main strategy in TB drug development is to develop a completely new regimen of TB drugs. While this is an important objective, it will not be realised for at least a decade.

That is too long to wait for patients suffering from drug-resistant TB at present and the nearly half a million new cases that emerge every year. Current treatment for drug-resistant TB is very long (up to two years), ineffective and produces often intolerable side effects.

A further PLoS paper sets out the urgent case for building capacity to conduct clinical trials in those countries where many drug-resistant TB patients live.

The PLoS papers arose out of discussions held during a conference hosted by MSF in New York to address the gaps in the TB drugs pipeline.

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PLoS Paper on Randomized drug trials

PLoS Paper on New Approaches to filling drug pipeline

PLoS Paper on building clinical trials capacity