TAG’s 2023 Pipeline Report: TB Treatment

Treatment Action Group (TAG) released the final installment of its Pipeline Report series for 2023, which details the latest developments in TB treatment research. The TB Treatment Pipeline Report is for researchers, clinicians, drug sponsors, research funders, civil society, and TB-affected communities looking to better understand the state of the TB treatment pipeline and key issues to consider as the outputs of TB treatment research are being translated into policies.

The 2023 TB Treatment Pipeline Report covers a pipeline that’s fuller than it’s ever been, tracking recent results, ongoing work to expand on recent treatment shortening successes, and the status of twenty-two new or repurposed compounds in clinical development for TB. Results are expected imminently from a phase IIb/c study of the DprE1 inhibitor that’s the furthest along — quabodepistat (formerly OPC-167832) – the first in a new class of TB drugs to reach this stage in over a decade. Other phase IIb/c trials finally opened in the last few months and are actively recruiting participants. These trials will evaluate regimens that include quabodepistat and another DprE1 inhibitor, BTZ-043, as well as sutezolid (an oxazolidinone like linezolid) and ganfeborole.

The report also reviews results of two recently completed Phase III trials: endTB, which demonstrated the efficacy and safety of three nine-month regimens containing bedaquiline and/or delamanid; and SimpliciTB, in which a four-month pretomanid- and bedaquiline-based regimen failed to demonstrate noninferiority to the six-month standard of care for drug-sensitive TB. The availability of data from multiple phase III randomized, controlled trials of shorter regimens for drug-resistant TB in the last two years (e.g., endTB, BEAT Tuberculosis, TB-PRACTECAL) presents a challenge to the World Health Organization and other decision makers in charge of updating TB treatment policies. The report highlights key issues that should be considered by policymakers as they attempt to compare these regimens.

You can read more in the 2023 TB Treatment Pipeline Report, as well as access TAG’s Pipeline Reports on TB vaccines and diagnostics here.

For more TB news, check out the latest edition of the TB Online Weekly Newsletter (#8, 8 March 2024) with the latest TB advocacy and research updates.