New antibiotics for tuberculosis
In 2017, there were around half a million new cases of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) worldwide; most of these (82%) were multidrug-resistant (MDR), meaning they are resistant to at least two of the most effective antibiotics used to treat TB. MDR-TB has historically been extremely difficult to treat; a full course of antibiotics can take up to two years and cause unpleasant side effects.
New drugs that have come onto the market in recent years have significantly improved the situation for patients, but more innovation is needed to curb the TB epidemic. In 2018, a group of international industry, research, academic and policy organisations came together to form RespiriTB, a new, unique collaboration - with the aim of advancing the development of new drug candidates that could be part of a new, more effective and shorter treatment regimen for MDR-TB.
Respiri TB is part of IMI's AMR acceleration programme.