Treatment Action Group launches the 2022 Tuberculosis Treatment Pipeline Report.
Decades of sustained advocacy from communities affected by tuberculosis (TB) has finally borne fruit: investments in scientific research are delivering shorter and more effective treatment regimens than ever before. Treatment Action Group (TAG) released its annual TB Treatment Pipeline Report, which puts results from phase III trials in context, and sheds light on the next generation of TB treatment shortening research. This Report is the final installment in TAG’s series of TB Pipeline Reports covering 2022, following previous reports on TB vaccines and diagnostics.
In 2022, several phase III trials reported results with important implications for treatment policies and implementation. These include RIFASHORT and TRUNCATE-TB for drug-sensitive TB and STREAM II, TB-PRACTECAL, BEAT-TB India, BEAT-Tuberculosis (South Africa) and MDR-END for drug-resistant TB.
The Report also provides an update on the status of nineteen new or repurposed drugs in clinical development for TB: ten from a new class or with a new mechanism of action, eight possible advantaged alternatives to existing TB drugs, and one already approved for other indications now being investigated for TB. Several are currently in phase IIb trials, with a compound sponsored by Otsuka (OPC-167832) the first in a new class of TB drugs to reach this stage since bedaquiline and delamanid were in phase IIb over ten years ago. U.S. government-funded research networks and newer public-private collaborations have begun to publicly share their planned approaches to advancing new compounds and combinations through phase II with most planning to combine new drugs with a bedaquiline and delamanid or pretomanid backbone for the treatment of drug-sensitive TB.
Despite exciting developments in phase II and III of the pipeline, there are unlikely to be any treatment regimens validated in the near-term that are shorter than four months for drug-sensitive TB and six months for drug-resistant TB — the regimens at the heart of the 1/4/6x24 Campaign. As such accelerating implementation of the four- and six-month regimens remains imperative, as does addressing remaining research gaps — such as those apparent for pregnant people and children — necessary to expand the benefits of scientific progress in TB treatment to all communities and populations affected by TB.
You can read more in the 2022 TB Treatment Pipeline Report, as well as access reports on TB vaccines and diagnostics here.
Source: Treatment Action Group