Global TB Alliance, Novartis To Form Partnership To Develop New TB Treatments

The Global Alliance for TB Drug Development on Oct. 27 announced that it has partnered with pharmaceutical company Novartis to develop a "much needed" new tuberculosis drug family, the Wall Street Journal reports. According to the alliance -- which has offices in New York, Brussels, Belgium, and Cape Town, South Africa -- the initial drug in the family -- called PA-824 -- will enter Phase I clinical trials in 2005. The group also hopes to begin studies of the investigational drug in Africa, Latin America and Asia after the Phase I trials are completed. According to Paul Herrling, head of Novartis corporate research and chair of the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases, PA-824 could be available in six years, adding that other drugs in the family could take 11 to 12 years to develop. "The drug discovery effort is really not a quickie. It takes sustained efforts," he said (Chase, Wall Street Journal, 10/27).