
he 21st Stop TB Partnership Coordinating Board retreat and meeting officially started in Bangkok, Thailand, on Sunday, January 29th with the official opening ceremony held yesterday January 30th. Included are some exciting news from the meeting courtesy of Mark Harrington, Executive Director of the Treatment Action Group (TAG).
On November 17 and 18, a TB Clinical Trials Consultants Meeting was held at St. George’s, University of London. The meeting was organized by CDC, CPTR, INTERTB, NIH, and TB Alliance. The meeting was convened to catalog expert opinion on the conduct of Phase 2 and Phase 3 clinical trials in tuberculosis.
Over the past couple of weeks there have been much discussion and reporting on totally drug-resistant tuberculosis (TDR-TB) based on reports of new cases in India. Here are links to coverage of TDR-TB in India, excerpt from a response by Dr. Nardell who we interviewed last year, and link to the WHO Fact Sheet on TDR-TB. Additional links to TB R&D News are included.
This week we interview Dr. Yossef Av-Gay and discuss his recently published paper, his contribution to TB drug discovery and the focus of his research. Dr. Av-Gay, a professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of British Columbia, recently published a paper in PNAS that provides evidence to that points to a specific protein that allows Mtb to bypass the body’s defenses. Additional TB R&D news links are included.
Today, the fourth annual G-FINDER survey tracking funding for research and development of neglected disease technologies was released. This year’s report shows that funding for product development is on the decline and product development partnerships (PDPs) have been particularly hard hit, as eight of the top twelve public donors cut their funding in 2010. Now is a time of tremendous opportunity, with dozens of potential products within the reach of patients–donors must commit to taking them across the finish line.
This week’s article looks at host factors that contribute to the ability of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) to enter and survive within macrophages. The authors explore the role of tyrosine kinases (TKs) as a mediator for Mtb and the use of an inhibitor of TKs to act against Mtb and related bacteria. Additional links to TB R&D news is included
During last week, the Stop TB Partnership Working Group on New Drugs had a successful annual meeting in Lille, France, in conjunction with the 42nd Union World Conference. There were quite a few updates to the Global TB Drugs Pipeline showing progress toward the goal of better treatment for TB in all patient populations. Additional links to TB R&D news are included.