Tuberculosis remains one of the top infectious disease killers worldwide, a challenge amplified by drug-resistant forms of the disease. Now, in a major step forward, an international clinical trial has found three new safe and effective drug regimens for tuberculosis that is resistant to rifampin, the most effective of the first-line antibiotics used to treat TB.
- By JAKE MILLER
The research, published Jan. 30 in the New England Journal of Medicine, was led by researchers at Harvard Medical School and other members of the endTB project, a collaboration among Partners In Health, Médecins Sans Frontières, and Interactive Research and Development, with help from researchers and clinicians at academic medical centers and research hubs worldwide.
The newly identified regimens take advantage of recently discovered drugs to expand the treatment arsenal and give physicians new ways to shorten and personalize treatment, minimize side effects, and treat patients using only pills instead of daily injections. They also offer alternatives in case of drug intolerance, medication shortages or unavailability, or drug resistance, the researchers said.
The endTB trial is one of four recent efforts to use randomized controlled trials to test new, shorter, less toxic regimens for drug-resistant TB. endTB uses two new drugs - bedaquiline and delamanid - which, when brought to market in 2012-2013, were the first new TB medicines developed in nearly 50 years.
