Seven pharma companies partner with Gates Foundation to speed TB drug discovery

Seven pharmaceutical companies and four research institutions, working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, have launched a groundbreaking partnership that aims to speed the discovery of essential new treatments for tuberculosis, or TB. The partnership, known as the TB Drug Accelerator, will target the discovery of new TB drugs by collaborating on early-stage research. Aided by nearly $20M from the Gates Foundation, partners officially launched the TBDA in April and have begun the first round of screening for new TB drug candidates. The participating pharmaceutical companies -- Abbott (ABT), AstraZeneca (AZN), Bayer (BAYRY), Eli Lilly (LLY), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Merck (MRK) and Sanofi (SNY)– will open up targeted sections of their compound libraries and share data with each other and four research institutions: the Infectious Disease Research Institute; the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health; Texas A&M University; and Weill Cornell Medical College. Breaking from traditional research and development practices, the companies will work together to develop the best prospects, regardless of where the drug originated. The structures of lead compounds identified through the program will ultimately be placed in the public domain.