Tuberculosis (TB) remains the world’s deadliest infectious diseases. Not only do more than 10 million people fall ill with it every year, increasing drug resistance, and movement of populations due to climate change, conflicts and adversities are hampering efforts to change the trajectory of the disease towards its elimination. While TB disproportionately affects lower-income countries, its impact is increasingly felt within the EU through migration, strained health services and supply interruptions. TB is a global challenge that demands coordinated global solutions — and on World TB Day we stand with the global TB community to say: yes, we can end TB!

But, how are we doing this? At GSK, we are committed to transforming how TB is prevented and treated, and the tools to work toward new options. Working with European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), global funders and public-health partners, we pool scientific expertise and long-standing global health commitments to speed up innovations to reach the people and communities who need them most. Thanks to the EU and EFPIA that funded IMI AMR Accelerator, and to the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), networks of collaborators across biopharma and biotech companies, subject matter experts, academic institutions and private public partnerships have come together. These organisations are working toward a common objective: to discover and develop novel treatments for TB and, importantly, for multi-drug-resistant TB, where more effective, better tolerated and affordable treatments are required to help end TB.

 Here are just some of the prominent TB projects within the IMI AMR accelerator:

• ERA4TB — a public–private consortium focused on the discovery of novel pre-clinical candidates that are progressed to Phase 1 to deliver multiples compounds ready to enter Phase 2 studies in TB patients. This large consortium of more than 30 partners brought together multiple EFPIA companies like Janssen, GSK and associated partners like Gates Foundation, TB Alliance amongst others.
  
• TRIC‑TB — a bilateral collaboration between GSK and BioVersys delivering a candidate regimen now entering late-stage clinical studies.
• UNITE4TB — a public–private consortium evaluating multiple early-stage candidates and designing combination regimens from day one, with EFPIA partners including Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Deutsches Zentrum für Infektionsforschung, Janssen, Otsuka and GSK.

EDCTP has also now funded EX-DR TB to explore novel treatment solutions to develop treatment opportunities to tackle the spread of extensively drug-resistant TB (EX-DR TB) for which there are currently no effective treatments. Crucially, shared expertise and pooled resources like these shorten development timelines for combination therapies compared with siloed approaches.

By coordinating trials, aligning priorities and partnering with funders and local health systems, we can increase the likelihood that breakthroughs will be effective, affordable and accessible in TB‑endemic settings.

It is possible to turn the tide on the TB epidemic. GSK, together with our EFPIA partners and other collaborators, remains steadfast in our mission to accelerate new solutions, so that ending TB becomes more achievable.

Funding disclosure:

ERA4TB has received funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreement No 853989. The JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and EFPIA and Global Alliance for TB Drug Development non profit organisation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and University of Dundee.

TRIC-TB has received funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreement No 853800. The JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and EPFIA.

UNITE4TB has received funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreement No 101007873. The JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and EFPIA, Deutsches Zentrum für Infektionsforschung e. V. (DZIF), and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU). EFPIA/AP contribute to 50% of funding, whereas the contribution of DZIF and the LMU University Hospital Munich has been granted by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.