AEGiS-PRn: New TB Drugs Needed Alongside Antiretrovirals: Joint Approach of HIV and TB a 'Must,' As TB is Number 1 Killer of AIDS Patients PRNewswireImportant note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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New TB Drugs Needed Alongside Antiretrovirals: Joint Approach of HIV and TB a 'Must,' As TB is Number 1 Killer of AIDS Patients

PRNewswire - November 29, 2001

NEW YORK, Nov. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Fighting the converging epidemics of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (TB) will require improved anti-TB drugs as well as wide access to antiretrovirals, with an integrated approach to treating both diseases, according to the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development, a public-private partnership created to develop new, affordable drugs to treat tuberculosis. TB is the leading killer of AIDS patients, especially in hardest-hit Africa and Asia and over 12 million people are co-infected with both diseases among the 40 million living with HIV infection. Since effective treatment of TB in immuno-compromised patients has been shown to extend their lives, improved TB drugs that simplify access and compliance would address the need of people living with HIV and dramatically improve efforts to control both epidemics.

"A meaningful way for us to mark World AIDS Day is a solid commitment to people living with HIV/AIDS to develop new, faster acting and widely accessible drugs against the number one killer of AIDS patients -- tuberculosis," said Dr. Maria Freire, CEO of the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development. "The alarming statistics in this year's UNAIDS report remind us of the explosive convergence of the HIV and TB epidemics."

Tuberculosis takes the lives of one person every 15 seconds, is easily transmitted through the air, forms a lethal combination with HIV/AIDS and is increasingly resistant to existing drugs. People with HIV are 30 to 50 times more likely than healthy individuals to develop active TB after new infection or reactivation of latent TB infection. Active TB may also dramatically accelerate the progression of AIDS, accompanied by enhanced HIV replication.

TB is the leading cause of illness and death among people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide. In sub-Saharan Africa, hardest hit by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, TB kills 1 out of 3 AIDS patients.

"The urgency for a comprehensive treatment of both diseases cannot be overstated. Moreover, the development of faster-acting effective treatments against all forms of TB will radically change the way we fight both diseases," said Dr. Giorgio Roscigno, Director of Strategic Development, Global Alliance for TB Drug Development. "Such a new TB drug will accelerate our ability to reach and treat AIDS patients with active TB and allow us to treat more of those co-infected with latent TB, thereby lowering the AIDS mortality levels."

Current TB drugs require excessively long treatment regimens (6-9 months for active TB and over 3 months for latent TB infection) imposing severe challenges on patients and public-health systems alike, hindering expansion of control programs, and contributing to the rise of multi-drug resistant TB against which most current TB drugs are ineffective. Because of the high risk of HIV patients to develop active TB, control programs should be integrated and provide accelerated access to treatment of both active and latent TB infection.

The Global Alliance recently released a report into the "Economics of TB Drug Development" building on the latest epidemiologic data to estimate the global burden of TB, the market for new TB drugs and the costs of drug development. It estimates that the number of people starting treatment for latent TB infection in high-HIV prevalence countries could grow from around 50,000 per year to 1 or even 2 million a year over the next decade, and confirms that a substantial factor in the rise of tuberculosis is due to its collision with the HIV epidemic.

The Global Alliance for TB Drug Development is a non-profit organization seeking to accelerate the discovery and/or development of affordable new TB drugs that will shorten treatment, be effective against multi-drug resistant TB, and improve treatment of latent TB infection. Designed as a public-private partnership, it functions as a lean, virtual R&D organization that develops promising compounds by outsourcing its R&D projects to public labs or industry.

Contact: Joelle Tanguy +1 646-361-1649 or Gwynne Oosterbaan +1 646-258-8410

SOURCE The Global Alliance for TB Drug Development Web Site: http://www.tballiance.org


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