Academia and industry united innovation and treatment for tuberculosis (UNITE4TB)
- Scientific Director: Prof. Dr. Michael Hoelscher
- Affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine
- Funding: 2021 bis 2028
Worldwide, Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the top 10 causes of death and the leading cause from a single infectious agent (even before HIV / AIDS). The increasing spreading of multi-resistant TB is a well-known public health challenge and has lead to an increased interest and investment in the development of anti-TB medicine. Despite increasing research activities in this area, there has been a lack of integrated attempts to develope TB-medicine.
The aim of UNITE4TB is to accelerate the clinical evaluation of existing and new medicine combinations. The aim is to developbetter-tolerated drug regimens of shorter duration that can be deployed to tackle tuberculosis across various drug-resistance patterns and co-morbidities.
By the collaboration with the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) and associated partners such as the LMU Klinikum Munich or the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), UNITE4TB has access to most of the most innovative TB compounds that are currently in the late preclinical , clinical phase 1 and early phase 2.
UNITE4TB is a public-private partnership with representation from academic institutions, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), public organisations, and pharmaceutical companies. Over the next 7 years, the consortium will be active in approximately 40 trial sites on four continents (Europe, Asia, Africa and South America), with the goal of delivering novel phase 2 clinical trials that will accelerate the development of new TB drugs and regimens.
Source: University Hospital