The TB Alliance, a non-governmental drug development partnership, yesterday signed a pioneering agreement with Bayer, the German pharmaceutical group, that could lead to the launch of radically improved treatment for tuberculosis at affordable prices within five years.
Bayer has agreed to supply for free its existing patented antibiotic moxifloxacin for use in clinical trials in the treatment of TB, and to co-operate with researchers from the TB Alliance in the development and regulatory approval of the drug for the disease. The move marks an important advance in the treatment of TB, which infects an estimated 9m new people each year and causes 2m deaths, mostly in developing countries.
"This is a really unique partnership and a bold and courageous step," said Maria Freire, president of the TB Alliance.
The lengthy, costly and complicated current treatments available require patients to be intensively supervised and to take four separate drugs, which were developed more than 40 years ago.
The result is that many do not complete their course, triggering the risk of drug-resistant TB that is even more complex to treat. The absence of a significant for-profit market for treatment of the disease means it has been neglected by pharmaceutical companies in their research over many years.
But after promising results in laboratory tests on mice, scientists believe that in combination with other drugs, moxifloxacin could cut treatment times for TB by up to half, knocking two to three months from the current six to eight months required.
"We are interested in bringing a drug into clinical use for TB, and providing it at an affordable manner to patients in need," said Wolfgang Plischke, head of the pharmaceuticals division of Bayer Healthcare, who said his company had "no plans so far" to sell the drug commercially as a TB treatment.
He said Bayer had had a "consistent commitment" to providing treatments for tropical medicines to the developing world at affordable prices, including for sleeping sickness, Chagas' disease and malaria.
Moxifloxacin has been used to treat 42m patients around the world with other infections, and generates annual sales of about Dollars 500m (Euros 415m, Pounds 285m) for Bayer.
The clinical trials on 2,500 patients in eight countries in North and South America, Europe and Africa will be co-ordinated by the TB Alliance.
The trials will receive funding from US and EU official sources. They will substitute moxifloxacin for one of two existing drugs, ethambutol or isoniazid.