News

TB REACH announces US$ 18.4 million in grants for innovation in tuberculosis case finding

Stop TB Partnership
Stop TB Partnership

The Stop TB Partnership’s TB REACH initiative today announced the recipients of its first wave of grants to organizations that will engage in innovative approaches to increasing detection of tuberculosis (TB).

Thirty applicants from 19 countries will together receive US$ 18.4 million to engage in activities of one year’s duration. Individual grants range from US$ 150 000 to US$ 1 000 000. The programme is funded by the Canadian International Development Agency.

TB REACH is aimed at increasing case detection of infectious TB as early as possible and ensuring timely treatment, while maintaining high cure rates within DOTS programmes. It seeks to encourage development and application of innovative and ground-breaking techniques, interventions, approaches and activities that result in detecting the undetected TB cases, leading to a reduced rate of transmission and preventing the emergence of drug-resistant forms of TB. The initiative, which focuses on reaching people from eligible countries who currently have limited or no access to TB services, launched a call for proposals in January that prompted 192 applications.

“Today some three million people a year are not accessing high-quality TB treatment. With the support of the Canadian Government, for which we are very grateful, the Stop TB Partnership is making an important step towards filling that gap. The organizations funded through TB REACH will serve as pathfinders as we develop new ways to reach all the people who need TB treatment, no matter who they are or where they live,” said Dr Marcos Espinal, Executive Secretary of the Stop TB Partnership.

Selections were made by a Proposal Review Committee (.pdf – 25kb) in March and approved by the Stop TB Partnership Coordinating Board today in Hanoi.

The 19 countries with successful applicants have per capita Gross National Income less than US$ 1200. Eighteen of the 30 recipients are located in countries of the WHO African Region. Seven of the recipients are national tuberculosis programmes, three are other types of government agencies and the remaining 20 are nongovernmental organizations.

To access the list of successful applicants, click here.

On behalf of Dr Marcos Espinal, Executive Secretary, Stop TB Partnership

More News
22 Jul 2024
The National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has issued a $30.8 million grant to the Preclinical Design and Clinical Translation of TB Regimens (PreDiCTR) consortium , a new consortium co-led by investigators from Weill Cornell Medicine; the...
27 Jun 2024
On May 17, the World Health Organization (WHO) released its updated  Bacterial Priority Pathogens List (BPPL) 2024 and for the first time in its history it included a drug resistant strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Along with three other new families of antibiotic-resistant bacterial pathogens...
19 Mar 2024
For World TB Day 2024, the WGND is spotlighting a monumental achievement in TB drug research and development: the Global TB Drug Pipeline has never been bigger than it is today. The number of drug candidates being clinically evaluated for use in the treatment of adult pulmonary TB has surpassed...