New Tuberculosis Drugs Required o Eliminate Epidemic, Meet Economic Development Goals
Health Experts Urge Public & Industry Commitments
New York, March 24, 2003 – In remarks timed for World TB Day this year, leading health experts underscored the critical need for a new, faster-acting tuberculosis medicine, the aim of the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance). The TB Alliance is an international public-private partnership and not-for-profit accelerating the discovery and development of new medicines.
Representing global health, philanthropy and drug development organizations, speakers emphasized how today’s 30-year-old drugs are inadequate in controlling an epidemic that takes a life every fifteen seconds. Infecting one-third of the world, tuberculosis is an airborne infectious disease and the leading killer of AIDS patients and women of child-bearing age. Today’s treatment regimen takes 6 to 9 months to complete and less than a third of TB patients have access to proper treatment.
A new TB drug would ensure that the G-8 could meet its Millennium Development goals to liminate TB by 2050. Speakers urged governments and industry to scale up funding and cooperation to make the goal of a faster TB cure a reality.