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How to fix tuberculosis R&D—the community speaks

Nature Biotechnology volume 37, pages 350–351 (2019)Cite this article

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In light of this precarious situation, during the summer of 2018 we contacted some key stakeholders from pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies, as well as donor and research organizations, to (i) discern the main factors impeding private sector investment in tools to combat TB and (ii) garner proposed mechanisms to incentivize greater engagement. Telephone interviews were conducted with 13 people from 12 organizations spanning the United States, UK, Netherlands, Japan, Canada and India: 9 from industry, 1 nongovernmental organization, 1 donor organization and 2 research organizations. Opinions were provided on condition of anonymity. Feedback from our interviews is presented below.

Complexity of disease and treatment was identified as a major barrier to industry investment. Current drug regimens are long and complex even for drug-sensitive TB, and become even more so for the treatment of drug-resistant strains. Simplifying the treatment would require improved therapy of drug-resistant diseases, the ability to simultaneously treat TB and HIV/AIDS, and/or shortened therapy of latent TB infection. In addition to these complexities, full understandings of the infection and disease mechanisms are still lacking, making it difficult to develop effective interventions.

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References

  1. World Health Organization. Global Tuberculosis Report 2018 http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/274453/9789241565646-eng.pdf?ua=1 (WHO, Geneva, 2018).

  2. Treatment Action Group. Tuberculosis Research Funding Trends 2005–2017 http://www.treatmentactiongroup.org/sites/default/files/tb_funding_2018_final.pdf (Treatment Action Group, New York, 2018).

  3. Policy Cures Research. Neglected Disease Research and Development: Reflecting on a Decade of Global Investment http://policycuresresearch.org/downloads/Y10_G-FINDER_full_report.pdf (G-FINDER, Surry Hills, NSW, Australia, 2018).

  4. World Health Organization. Global Investments in Tuberculosis Research and Development – Past, Present and Future http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/259412/9789241513326-eng.pdf;jsessionid=BF926BB2DE53DC01082C836889F10A78?sequence=1 (WHO, Geneva, 2017).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shearman & Sterling LLP, New York, NY, USA

    Mark Kessel & Bhavana Rana

  2. Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND), Geneva, Switzerland

    Mark Kessel & Catharina Boehme

Authors
  1. Mark Kessel
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  2. Bhavana Rana
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  3. Catharina Boehme
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Correspondence to Mark Kessel.

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Kessel, M., Rana, B. & Boehme, C. How to fix tuberculosis R&D—the community speaks. Nat Biotechnol 37, 350–351 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-019-0051-0

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