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Unitaid calls for innovative ways to accelerate access to better, shorter treatments for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis
Geneva, 21 May 2017 – Unitaid today launched a new Call for Proposals with the aim of attracting smart ideas to accelerate access to innovative treatment regimens and diagnostics for tackling multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB).
MDR-TB is a global health crisis that threatens the progress made in controlling TB. Detection and treatment gaps continue to plague the MDR-TB response. In 2015, 580,000 people were in need of MDR-TB treatment, and only half of the 125,000 patients enrolled on treatment were cured.
Existing treatments for MDR-TB are long, toxic, with often severe side effects, such as acute psychosis and deafness. “Given the lingering threat of MDR-TB, we need to develop shorter, simpler, less toxic treatments to effectively tackle it,” said Lelio Marmora, Unitaid Executive Director, speaking at a high-level Unitaid/Stop TB Partnership event on tackling antimicrobial resistance through innovation on the eve of the 70th World Health Assembly. “Unitaid is already investing US$ 60 million to speed up access to new drugs and test their efficacy in resource-limited settings.”
Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended a shorter regimen for MDR-TB treatment, lasting 9 to 12 months, with 4 to 6 months of injectable drugs. Patients not eligible for the shorter regimen continue to require 18 to 24 months of treatment, including 8 months of injectable drugs. Currently, the range of treatment options fragments the market for drug-resistant TB, reducing the commercial incentive for innovation and development.
There are currently over 20 registered clinical trials involving drug-resistant TB, most of them using new and/or repurposed drugs. “Better and shorter treatments are a must if one wants to tackle the MDR-TB crisis, boost cure rates, and save lives. Unitaid has a critical role to play in taking innovations to scale and building the market for new regimens as well proven with its previous initiatives to expand access to new rapid MDR-TB tests,” said Dr Mario Raviglione, Director of WHO’s Global TB Programme.
Under this Call, Unitaid aims to speed up the development and adoption of new treatment regimens for MDR-TB linked to simpler and faster TB testing, address market challenges and create the evidence needed to inform WHO guidelines.
“The current available medicines for MDR-TB are a challenge, in any way you look at it: terrifying side effects including irreversible hearing loss and depression, huge costs – financial and human suffering and death. Therefore, none of us should spare any efforts to ensure that we have the shortest, most efficient and affordable treatment and to make it accessible to all,” said Dr Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director of the Stop TB Partnership.
The G20 Health Ministers underscored the need to “reinvigorate research and development in science and industry for antimicrobials” at their meeting in Berlin yesterday and highlighted the importance of investments made by Unitaid and other health partners in the fight against AMR.
- Read the Call for Proposals here
Unitaid drives efforts to end TB by developing new treatments and diagnostics
Geneva – On World TB Day, Unitaid joins the World Health Organization in its efforts to mobilize countries and partners to “Unite to end Tuberculosis”. This year’s focus is on the stigma, discrimination and marginalization that many people with tuberculosis (TB) in low-income countries face.
By developing shorter, more affordable and effective TB treatments and more user-friendly diagnostics, Unitaid is helping patients to access care more easily and breaking down stigma at the same time.
Most TB cases are cured with standard antibiotics but drug-resistant strains are emerging across the world, which are much harder to treat. Unitaid is committed to fighting resistance by investing in innovation to develop treatments for multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) that are simpler, shorter, less toxic, and more affordable. Currently only half of MDR-TB patients on treatment are cured.
Unitaid has also helped introduce a new diagnostic tool that spots resistance to standard anti-TB medications in a matter of hours, and is now widely available in more than 130 countries. Better diagnostics are essential to guiding effective treatment and to helping to overcome indiscriminate prescription of antibiotics and other drugs that can fuel resistance.
Ending TB by 2030 is one of the UN Sustainable Development Goal targets. To achieve this, the international community, governments, civil society and the private sector must do their part to fight the stigma and discrimination associated with TB, accelerate access to care and treatment, and tackle drug resistance.
Various high-level political events this year will put a spotlight on efforts to end TB, including the G20 Summit in July, and the first Global Ministerial Conference on TB, to be held in Moscow in November. And in 2018 the UN General Assembly will organize the first High-level Meeting on TB.
“The increased political commitment to end TB is a positive development, but it will need to be matched with larger investments to ensure that those most vulnerable to TB have access to appropriate care and treatment,” said Lelio Marmora, Unitaid’s Executive Director.
Check out:
Tackling Multidrug-Resistant TB in Lesotho — a photo story
Tackling Multidrug-Resistant TB in Lesotho — a photo story
Limpho Taka, a 47-year old patient with HIV and multidrug-resistant TB, (MDR-TB) lives in Mpokochela, a village in the Drakenberg mountains of Lesotho. It takes him three hours on his horse to reach the Bobete clinic where he receives treatment for MDR-TB. His family has a little farm with three horses, 73 sheep, eight cows and seven chickens. He grows sorghum, wheat and vegetables for a living.