Gates Foundation Awards $104M, Five-Year Grant to Global TB Drug Alliance

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Wednesday announced a five-year, $104 million grant to the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development aimed at developing new tuberculosis drugs, the Irish Examiner reports (Irish Examiner, 5/25). The alliance will use the grant money to begin Phase III trials of Bayer's antibiotic moxifloxacin, and it aims to determine the drug's effectiveness by 2010, according to TB Alliance President and CEO Maria Freire (Chase, Wall Street Journal, 5/25). Based on preclinical findings, moxifloxacin could help reduce TB treatment time by at least one-third. The grant money also will help the alliance fund nine preclinical projects and determine the best compounds for clinical studies; work with policymakers, TB treatment providers and advocates to ensure the new drugs will be adopted and available in developing countries; and examine drug market conditions and compliance issues to speed the adoption of a new drug regimen when it is proven effective. The money also will support the TB alliance in its effort to find ways to streamline the clinical process by testing new treatment combinations sooner in the development process (TB Alliance release, 5/24). According to Freire and Peter Small, head of the Gates Foundation's TB program, billions more in funding is needed in addition to the Gates Foundation grant to make new drugs available and deliver them to the millions of people in need of access (Paulson, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 5/25). According to the TB Alliance, it needs an additional $100 million to advance 11 drugs currently in development (TB Alliance release, 5/24). The Gates Foundation in 2000 awarded the alliance a five-year, $25 million grant (Elias, AP/USA Today, 5/25).