What: Teleconference to recap presentations given on TB therapies in development from the IUATLD conference in Paris and the ICAAC conference in Washington DC. Latest scientific studies and results will be shared; briefings from the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance), leading pharmaceutical companies and academic laboratories will participate. There will be a Q&A session for journalists.
Why: New findings on the impact of TB and the critical need for the globally coordinated pipeline; response has been catalyzed and managed by the TB Alliance, a public private partnership created only four years ago to develop affordable, faster-acting drugs.
Tuberculosis infects one third of the world's population and is the oldest known human infection, but no new drugs have been introduced in over thirty years. There were few, if any, new candidates in development a decade ago. Standard TB treatment regimens for active carriers of the disease are resource-intensive and difficult to comply with due to their complexity and length (3-4 separate drugs for 6-9 months). Treatment of multi-drug resistant TB is difficult, costly, and far less effective, and a majority of MDR-TB strains are now resistant to three of the four first-line drugs. TB is the leading killer of AIDS patients, but simultaneous TB-HIV treatment is prevented by drug-drug interactions between some ARVs and old TB drugs. The TB Alliance has brought together leading researchers, industry actors, and public health advocates to realize the first, most comprehensive TB drug pipeline since the 1960s.
Who: * Dr. Mel Spigelman, Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance)* Dr. Doris Rouse, RTI International * Dr. Thomas Keller, Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases (NITD) * Dr. Carol Nacy, Sequella Inc. * Dr. Scott Franzblau, University of Illinois at Chicago
When: Monday, November 1, 2004, 9.00 " 9.30 am EST time (2.00 " 2:30 pm GMT)
Editors Note: Please use the following link to review information referenced on the call http://www.tballiance.org/novartis.asp
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