Meeting of the Working Group on
TB Drug Development
Why you need to be engaged?
Marcos Espinal
Executive Secretary
Stop TB Partnership
29 October 2004
Paris, France
I am pleased to let you know that… tuberculosis control
has progressed to the point where virtual elimination of
the disease as a public health problem appears to be
within reach…
So Maria, Peter, Giorgio, Rick, Ken, Lee, and all of you please go
home, relax, and look for a more exciting job…
November 1959, The Arden House Conference on Tuberculosis. New York
The Arden House Conference on Tuberculosis. U.S. Department of Health, Education, and
Welfare, Public Health Service No. 784. Washington, DC:US Government Printing Office; 1961.
Stop TB Goals

By 2005
– 70% Case detection under DOTS
– 85% Cure rate

By 2015: Millennium Development Goals
– 50% reduction in prevalence and deaths by 2015

By 2050:The global incidence of TB disease
will be less than 1 per million population
New tools will take us there
Challenges

Additional resources for health and
poverty reduction
– Workforce crisis: more & better human
resources
– Better harmonized and more effective aid
– Strengthened health systems: primary care
– Improved performance monitoring

Consolidate, sustain and advance
achievements
– Mobilise communities, the private sector, and
enhance political commitment
– Accelerate response to HIV/AIDS emergency
– Invest in research & dev't to shape the
future
Source: 2nd Ad-hoc committee, September 2003
Partnership towards
Stop TB Targets
TB/HIV
WG
DOTS
Expansion
WG
DOTS-Plus
MDRTB WG
Goals &
Targets
Secretariat/GDF
TB Diagnostics
WG
New Vaccines
WG
Coordinating Board
New Drugs WG
Partners Forum
Communication/
Advocacy WG
WG Mission
You need to deliver faster and affordable TB
medicines
–
–
–
–
Simplification / shortening TB treatment
Improve latent TB treatment
Effective against MDR-TB
Be easily adoptable in the field
Why is important for the
R & D community to keep
engaged through the WG…
Current tools are not sufficient
and
being away and isolated is not the solution
MGIT …. About 15-20 years….
Portfolio

Shared responsibility
– Novartis donation to GDF – Eli Lilly discount to the GLC

Networking
– Learning from others – duplication

Forum for a common agenda on new tools issues
– economics, regulatory requirements, trial site register, immunological
issues, market introduction, advocacy and communication

Get new tools into TB control in poor countries
– Cross fertilization with other WGs

Global Plan to Stop TB
The Global Plan to
Stop TB (and 2003 update)

DOTS Expansion Working  Working Group on New Diagnostics:
Enabling environment for commercial
Group: 180 countries
implementing DOTS

Working Group on TB/HIV:  Working Group on New TB Drugs:
Policy for TB/HIV collaborative
activies

tool development
Pipeline of promising compounds
Working Group on DOTS-  Working Group on
New Vaccines: Two
Plus for MDR-TB: Treatment
for MDR-TB in more than 10
countries
vaccine candidates
entering phase I
clinical trials
Partnership Governance:
Coordinating Board










High TB burden countries (4): China, India, Brazil, DR Congo
Regional representatives (6)
WHO, World Bank, UNAIDS, GFATM
Working Group Chairpersons (7)
Financial donors (4): CIDA, Japan, Euro (NL), USAID
Foundations (1): Gates Foundation
NGOs and technical agencies (3): IUATLD, CDC, IFRC
Communities affected by TB (1): Under selection
Chair of the WHO STAG: Mexico vice MOH
Corporate business sector: Heineken
I am pleased to let you know that… tuberculosis
control will progress to the point where
elimination of the disease as a public health
problem will be within reach…
So Maria, Peter, Giorgio, Rick, Ken, Lee, and all of you
please keep working hard because the quest is not
yet over…
Thank you…
…for your contributions, and your continued
collaboration in the Stop TB Partnership!