TB Pipeline Momentum Continues, Lupin Candidate Latest Contribution

September 5, 2004

The latest in a series of announcements this year, Lupin Limited, Inc., an Indian pharmaceutical and a TB Alliance Stakeholder, and the Indian government's Council of Industrial and Scientific Research (CSIR) recently announced promising animal model results of a new anti-TB drug candidate. Lupin will be presenting their findings in detail at a Symposium sponsored by the TB Alliance on latest advances in TB drug development during a major TB conference in November, hosted by the International Union Against TB and Lung Disease (IUATLD).

"It is rewarding to see this project announced by Lupin and CSIR, which we have been watching closely, as it serves as additional proof of the momentum created in a few a short years: the emergence of a new global pipeline of TB drug candidates, the first in forty years," said Dr. Maria C. Freire, CEO of the TB Alliance, the lead engine for the development of better and affordable new drugs.

The Lupin candidate, Sudoterb, a pyrrole derivative, joins a handful of other compounds at a similar stage of development that form the new, emerging TB drug pipeline. The global pipeline now includes, among others, the nitroimidazole derivative PA-824, a Chiron compound being developed by the TB Alliance and poised for clinical trials in 2005, as well as Bayer’s quinolone drug moxifloxacin, already in clinical trials for TB indication). These two TB drug candidates have demonstrated ability to significantly shorten treatment in recent mouse model studies.