Combination of Drugs Effective in TB Treatment

Tuberculosis remains a deadly threat worldwide. There haven't been any new medications to treat TB in the four decades. But a latest study in South Africa raises hope in battling with this deadly lung diseases even if they are resistant to today's main drugs.

A small study showed that patients taking a new drug combination PA-824MZ showed remarkable destruction of the bacteria, nearly 99 percent in a short course of just two weeks.

The newly discovered drug is a combination of three drugs namely: PA 824 which has never been used before, moxifloxacin a pneumonia drug not being used for TB and pyrazinamide that has previously been used in treating TB.

"TB is the largest killer of AIDS patients, and so in order to contain the AIDS epidemic, we have to contain TB to a much greater extent," said Dr. Mel Spiegelman, chief executive officer of the TB Alliance, a non-profit research group that conducted the study. The report was published in the Lancet.

"Treating drug-sensitive and drug-resistant TB with the same regimen can simplify the delivery of TB treatment worldwide," said Andreas Diacon, MD, the trial's principal investigator and lead author of the study. "The results of this study give healthcare providers on the front lines of the TB epidemic hope for better, faster tools needed to stop this disease."

A second trial called New Combination 2 (NC-002) was launched earlier this year to test the PaMZ combination for over two months in patients, further advancing it through clinical development.

TB experts say any new drugs for tuberculosis would be an extraordinary development but that new TB drug combinations are potential game-changers due to their expected impact.

"Because of testing drugs in combination, we have already saved several years in the research process to find new, effective regimens to treat TB," Mario Raviglione, MD, Director of the Stop TB Department at the World Health Organization said. "The results look strongly promising from this early trial. If further testing holds up these results and the regimen is affordable in poor countries, it is huge progress. We could shorten drug regimens substantially for everyone, regardless of whether the form of TB is sensitive or multi-drug resistant. That would be a dramatic step forward."