Speakers at Lung Health Conference Address Development of New TB Drugs
Speakers at a session held on Friday at the 37th World Conference for Lung Health, hosted by the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease in Paris, discussed the development of new drugs for TB. Martino Laurenzi of the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development gave an overview of the current TB drug pipeline, with a focus on gatifloxacin, moxifloxacin, PA-824, TMC 207, OPC-67683, LL-3858 and SQ-109. According to Laurenzi, PA-824 could be effective against drug-resistant TB strains, while moxifloxacin could reduce TB therapy to four months or less. David McNeeley of Tibotec and Andreas Diacon of the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa examined the clinical testing of and next steps for TMC 207, and Christian Lienhardt of IUATLD discussed a gatifloxacin-containing regimen. In addition, Makoto Matsumoto of Otsuka Pharmaceutical discussed the development of the drug OPC-67683 -- which he said could be effective against latent TB -- and David Edwards of Harvard University highlighted the potential of aerosol technology to treat TB (Kimberley Lufkin, GlobalHealthReporting.org, 11/3).
A kaisernetwork.org webcast of the session is available online.
