EU Leaders Urge Funding of Critically-needed New Tools against Drug-resistant Tuberculosis - TB Alliance, TuBerculosis Vaccine Initiative and Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevölkerung High-Level Meeting - Seite 2

The WHO's ambitious End TB Strategy targets reduction in TB deaths by 95 percent and cutting new cases by 90 percent between 2015 and 2035. Under the TB Action Plan for the WHO European Region 2016-2020, an interim target is a 25 percent reduction in new TB cases and a 75 percent treatment success rate among patients with multidrug-resistant TB.

"A major impetus for developing new vaccines against TB is to sidestep the problem of drug resistance. A vaccine would not be affected by whether the TB organism was resistant to drugs because vaccines have an entirely different mode of action in the body," said Dr. Nick Drager, executive director of TBVI, a European foundation supporting research and development activities for new TB vaccines.

The shortest treatment for forms of drug-resistant TB takes at least nine months and can take up to two years or more. The treatment itself consists of a combination of harsh drugs, given as pills and injections. Fewer than half of all people with multidrug-resistant TB are successfully cured.

"For those people already suffering from drug-resistant TB, more effective, more tolerable, shorter acting, and less expensive treatment options are desperately needed," said Dr. Mel Spigelman, president and CEO of TB Alliance, a U.S. based nonprofit accelerating development of new TB drug treatments. "To curb drug resistance, we need political will and a commitment of significantly more resources for research and development into new drug treatments."

The high-level meeting in Brussels-"TB and European Health Security: The critical role of TB R&D in the context of antimicrobial resistance"-was hosted by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport of the Netherlands and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development of France. It was organized by TBVI, TB Alliance, and Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevölkerung (DSW), a a global development NGO.

The high-level meeting precedes the Global Ministerial Conference on TB to be held in Moscow in November 2017 and the UN high-level meeting on TB in September 2018.

TB Alliance (Global Alliance for TB Drug Development)  

TB Alliance is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to finding faster-acting and affordable drug regimens to fight tuberculosis (TB). Through innovative science and with partners around the globe, we aim to ensure equitable access to faster, better TB cures that will advance global health and prosperity. TB Alliance operates with support from Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research through KfW, Global Health Innovative Technology Fund, Irish Aid, Indonesia Health Fund, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UNITAID, United Kingdom Department for International Development, United States Agency for International Development, and the United States Food and Drug Administration. For more information, please visit: http://www.tballiance.org