Trending science: New medication for drug-resistant tuberculosis
A new medication has shown the potential to cure drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB). The new drug, which was announced at the annual International AIDS Conference, in Melbourne, Australia, could represent a medical breakthrough that would impact on the lives of millions of TB-sufferers worldwide. The story is reported in the New Scientist earlier this week. It notes that the trial results of a triple-drug combination called PaMZ (PA-824 + Moxifloxacin + Pyrazinamide) offer the best hope in decades of bringing the disease under control. The New Scientist quotes Mel Spigelman, director of the TB Alliance which is advancing the drug, who names the news as 'a game-changer' which 'raises the prospect of being able to treat all people with TB with the same inexpensive drugs'. TB kills an estimated 1.3 million people annually and remains a leading cause of death globally, especially among people who are co-infected with HIV. The New Scientist elaborates: 'Multidrug-resistant TB, or MDR TB, accounts for about 3.7 per cent of new TB cases globally, or 450,000 a year. Currently, people with drug-resistant TB require a minimum of 18 to 24 months of treatment. This more extensive therapy requires more than 12,000 pills and daily injections for at least 6 months.' PaMZ is a combination of three drugs which act in different ways to kill TB bacteria and drastically reduce the treatment time. The main new ingredient is PA-824, which stops the bacteria from building their cell walls. And even Bill Gates is a fan - according to the TB Alliance, the Gates Foundation has committed 'significant funding' to determine the safety and efficacy of the new drug regimen. Speaking about the new drug, Mr Gates noted, 'PaMZ could dramatically reduce the time required to cure drug-resistant TB from two years to just six months, and it could cut the cost of curing drug-resistant TB in low-income countries from thousands of dollars to just a fraction of that cost.' Bloomberg also underlines the importance of the news with a quotation from Amrita Daftary, a postdoctoral fellow with ICAP, formerly the International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs at Columbia University, who also emphasises the importance of the news: 'If you're suddenly cutting down that regimen to 6 months you're probably going to see more people completing the treatment. It would be such a boon because it would reduce the stigma associated with TB.' Now, the funding from the Gates Foundation and others will facilitate PaMZ to be tested in a Phase 3 clinical trial named STAND (Shortening Treatments by Advancing Novel Drugs). If successful, the regimen would eliminate the need for injectable drugs and reduce the cost of MDR-TB therapy in some countries by more than 90 % in those patients whose TB organisms are sensitive to the three drugs. Support for earlier research of the PaMZ regimen was provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID), the Australia Department for Foreign Affairs (DFAT), US Agency for International Development (USAID), Irish Aid, and the Directorate-General for International Cooperation (DGIS). While the TB Alliance hopes to launch the STAND trial by the end of this year, the team emphasises that the date will be subject to obtaining adequate funding commitments.For more information, please visit:http://www.tballiance.org/newscenter/view-brief.php?id=1096