EU consortium launches to advance TB therapies

A new seven-year consortium has launched to bring new, safe and affordable treatments for tuberculosis (TB) to patients.

The €185 million project called UNITE4TB consists of 30 partners from 13 countries and is the latest initiative of the IMI AMR Accelerator, a public-private collaboration with the shared goal of progressing the development of new medicines to treat or prevent resistant bacterial infections.

UNITE4TB is aiming to accelerate and improve the clinical evaluation of combinations of existing and novel drugs, with the goal of developing new and highly active TB treatment regimens for drug-resistant and -sensitive TB.

“Tuberculosis is a major threat to public health worldwide. By bringing together leading experts from the public and private sectors in Europe and beyond, UNITE4TB is well placed to deliver results that will accelerate the development of better treatment regimens to tackle this disease,” said Dr Pierre Meulien, executive director of IMI.

UNITE4TB is the largest public-private collaboration on clinical TB drug development in the EU. The partners are hoping to set a new standard for anti-TB regimen development, enhancing the efficiency with which new treatments are delivered to TB patients across the world.

TB is one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide, with the growing emergence of multidrug-resistant TB being recognised as a major public health challenge, bringing about new interest and investment in anti-TB drug development.

UNITE4TB will develop a global clinical trials network that can conduct phase II trials. The project will employ adaptive trial designs, advanced modelling, artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques throughout clinical trials. All of this will allow for the selection and testing of novel combination regimens, potentially increasing the probability of success in subsequent phase III clinical trials. 

Anja Karliczek, Germany’s federal minister of Education and Research, says: “Europe’s UNITE4TB project creates an important new platform for research to combat tuberculosis. Science and industry will jointly test their clinical candidates and share research results. The objective is to develop effective combinations for new, urgently needed solutions to treat tuberculosis. This public-private partnership will set a new standard in the fight against global diseases such as TB. UNITE4TB is a remarkable example of international research collaboration. I am delighted that Germany is supporting the consortium with funding of around 25 million euros to the two German Associated Partners. I am confident that UNITE4TB will contribute towards achieving the goal of ending tuberculosis by 2030 that was adopted by the G20 Heads of State and Government at the UN General Assembly.”