The week of November 12th was exciting with the 43rd Union World Conference, the WGND Annual Meeting (will be posting presentations soon), and the Stop TB Coordinating Board Meeting. Below are some news highlights and a listing of webcasts of interesting and presentations relevant for TB drug development and research.

News Highlights:

Treatment Action Group and Stop TB Partnership Issue Update on 2011 Global TB R&D Investment Trends

Desmond Tutu TB Centre receives Stop TB Partnership Kochon Prize

First ever civil society march held at the Union World Conference on Lung Health

Civil society declaration on tuberculosis issued at Union Conference

Stop TB Partnership Coordinating Board approves new three-year Operational Strategy at its 22nd meeting

Relevant Presentations from 43rd Union World Conference:

Childhood TB

Pharmacokinetics of second line TB therapy in children (Hesseling, Anneke)

A framework for the evaluation of new TB drugs in children (Mendel, Carl)

TB treatment considerations for neonates and infants (Bekker, Adrie)

Childhood TB: we need to do more (Hesseling, Anneke)

MDR-TB

Use of Bedaquiline (TMC-207) for treatment of MDR-TB (Haxaire-Theeuwes, Myriam)

Delamanid: a promising new treatment for MDR-TB (Wells, Charles)

The access pipeline: timelines for new drugs (Gardiner, Elizabeth)

Market interventions to increase access to MDR-TB treatment: the UNITAID approach (Matiru, Robert)

12-month standardised MDR-TB regimen: experience in Cameroon (Kuaban, Christopher)

Treatment results of clofazimine used in the management of MDR-TB patients during the intensive phase of treatment (Mindrul, Myroslava)

Biomarkers and Clinical Trial Design

Introduction–Biomarkers in tuberculosis: from discovery to clinical application (Gennaro, Marila)

The who, what and how of biomarker assessment: study design, population and methods (Menzies, Richard)

Biomarkers and clinical trials (Nahid, Payam)

Adaptive and other novel trial designs for late-phase clinical trials (Phillips, Patrick)

General TB

Sir John Crofton Memorial Lecture – Timebomb revisited ten years later: can we sustain progress or are we losing the war? (Reichman, Lee B.)

Increasing new resources through international advocacy partnerships (Barua, Aparna)

The role of communities in the development and scale-up of new tools for TB (Makone, Albert, WGND Community Representative)