TB Alliance

The Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance) is a non-profit organization dedicated to the discovery and development of new, faster-acting and affordable tuberculosis medicines.

The TB Alliance expects to register a new anti-TB regimen that could cut the duration of tuberculosis treatment one-third by 2010. In the long-term, the TB Alliance’s goal is to develop a drug regimen that will reduce TB treatment to 10 doses from 130; be effective against drug resistant strains of TB; work with the antiretroviral drugs used to treat HIV; and improve the treatment of latent TB infection.



Background
Tuberculosis infects one third of the world’s population, kills two million people each year, and costs the global economy $16 billion annually. However, research and development for new TB drugs came to a virtual standstill after the 1960s. Today, a four drug combination therapy exists, but it takes six months or more to be effective. This requires a degree of monitoring (See Direct Observational Therapy, Shortcourse) beyond the capacity of the health infrastructure in many countries; adequate TB treatment is available to less than half of the most infectious cases. This can inhibit control of the disease and fuel the rise of drug resistance. TB is also the number one killer of AIDS patients, but it is generally agreed that current TB treatments do not work well with the antiretroviral drugs used to treat HIV.

The TB drug market lacks sufficient financial incentives to stimulate a single private pharmaceutical company to invest in the new research required to sustain a treatment pipeline. The TB epidemic is concentrated in developing countries where drugs must be low in cost to remain accessible. It does not generate the kind of revenue streams that private companies usually deem necessary to justify the research costs and strategic risks involved in pharmaceuticals. The TB Alliance was designed to be the primary instrument to fill this vacuum and to ensure that new anti-TB drugs are affordable and accessible in endemic countries.

History
The TB Alliance was conceived at a February 2000 meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, where 120 representatives from academia, industry, major government agencies, non-governmental organizations and donors gathered to discuss the problems of tuberculosis treatment. Participants stressed the need for faster-acting, novel TB drugs and highlighted the scientific opportunities involved. The resulting "Declaration of Cape Town" provided a road map for TB drug development and outlined the need for creation of the TB Alliance.

Program
The TB Alliance is a non-profit public-private partnership. It operates like a virtual biotechnology firm, collaborating with research institutions and pharmaceutical companies so that risks and incentives are shared. While retaining management oversight of its drug development projects, the TB Alliance out-sources the development of potential drugs to public and private partners, providing funding and scientific guidance. Depending on the project, the TB Alliance either co-invests and co-develops a project, funds and manages it directly, or in-licenses the technology or intellectual property involved. Project diversity is a stated goal, with potentials compounds selected from a variety of chemical classes, with a wide-range of targets within the TB organism, Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

As of May, 2006, the TB Alliance has 11 drug projects underway, either in development or in human testing. Part of the TB Alliance’s stated mission is to ensure that any new treatments are affordable and accessible in the developing world, and that they are adopted as soon as they become available. Pricing terms are included in all licensing contracts and end products are designed to be easy to take. The TB Alliance also collaborates with national and international partners, working to ensure that new therapies are adopted and accessible to healthcare providers and patients via local channels.