From here.
Johnson & Johnson said Monday that it is seeking U.S. approval for the first new type of medicine to fight deadly tuberculosis in more than four decades.
The experimental drug, called bedaquiline, also would be the first medicine specifically for treating multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis. That's an increasingly common form in which at least two of the four primary TB drugs don't work.
Tuberculosis, caused by bacterial infection of the lungs and other body areas, is the world's No. 2 killer of adults among infectious diseases.
The company this fall is to begin late-stage testing that will compare bedaquiline to dummy pills over nine months in about 600 patients; each will also take six other drugs that are the standard treatments for tuberculosis. That study is aimed at seeing whether treatment for resistant tuberculosis can be reduced to nine months from the current 18 to 24 months recommended by the World Health Organization.
Roughly one-third of the world's population is estimated to be infected with the bacteria causing tuberculosis. It remains latent in most people for many years but can be activated by another infection or serious health problem.
Well, TB is not common for the developed world and the drug will not make big money. But it probably will save a lot of lives... We wish a success to the company.
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