TB Drug Development. Positive news?

From here:

Sanofi has extended its links with the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development to discover new treatments for the deadly infectious disease that resulted in almost 1.5 million deaths during 2010.

Under the terms of the pact, the French drugmaker and not-for-profit TB Alliance will collaborate to develop several novel compounds in Sanofi’s library that have demonstrated activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes TB. This includes "in-depth research of lead compounds based upon identified chemical derivatives of natural products…and the chemical optimisation of other series of compounds that have been identified as hits through high-throughput screening", the partners say.

The key words here "in-depth research of lead compounds based upon identified chemical derivatives of natural products…and the chemical optimisation of other series of compounds that have been identified as hits through high-throughput screening". Well, the same HTS approach and the same "targeted" mantra. I think that Sanofi and Alliance should know that this approach is inefficient. And probably they know but this is a part of plan...

The deal is an expansion to a previous pact signed between Sanofi and TB Alliance in 2008.