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Novel TB combination regimen shows potent activity in randomised short-term clinical trial
Keith Alcorn, 2012-07-25 12:30:00
A new TB drug, PA-824, showed very potent early bactericidal activity in a randomised 14-day study in people with TB, when used in combination with the established antibiotic moxifloxacin, and pyrazinamide, an existing TB drug, according to a presentation by Dr Stephen Murray of the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (the TB Alliance) on Monday at the 19th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) in Washington DC.
The study results (published on the same day in The Lancet), suggested that the early bactericidal activity in the combination arm was much greater than what was observed in the five other arms, one of which involved standard TB treatment – though the size of the study was not large enough to prove a significant difference between the arms.
Nevertheless, the findings in human patients seemed to match the activity predicted by a mouse model that Dr Murray said could be used to identify the most potent new TB combination regimens to take forward quickly into clinical development.
In addition to being the first clinical confirmation of a new TB drug’s activity, the particular regimen is interesting for two other important reasons.
First, in addition to being potent against drug-sensitive TB, it is expected to be active against most drug-resistant strains of TB – potentially shaving more than a year off of the time it takes to treat a person with MDR-TB and possibly even extensively drug-resistant TB.
Second, the regimen should not have any major drug-drug interactions if given at the same time as antiretroviral therapy (ART) to HIV-positive people with TB.
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