TB Alliance’s push to test new drugs in combination has been done to produce a regimen that not only would be faster and easier for patients, but also would tackle two other challenges as a major step in stopping the spread of drug-resistant TB—the complexity and high cost of treatment. This promising regimen eliminates the use of injectables and projects to reduce the cost of MDR-TB therapy by as much as 90 percent.
The study, NC-001, or New Combination 1, was a two-week trial successfully completed at two centers in South Africa. It involved the new combination therapy called PaMZ, consisting of the novel TB drug candidate, PA-824 (see below structure left); moxifloxacin (right structure), an established antibiotic not yet approved for use in first-line TB therapy and being developed in partnership with Bayer Healthcare AG; and pyrazinamide, an existing TB drug.
“Treating drug-sensitive and drug-resistant TB with the same regimen can simplify the delivery of TB treatment worldwide,” said Andreas Diacon, MD, the trial’s principal investigator and lead author of the Lancet study. “The results of this study give healthcare providers on the front lines of the TB epidemic hope for better, faster tools needed to stop this disease.”
(Pyrazinamide)Newscenter | Global Alliance for TB Drug Development
