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Source: http://www.sciencecodex.com/the_lan...but_concerns_for_patient_safety_remain-137354
The Lancet: Novel treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis shows promise, but concerns for patient safety remain
Posted By News On July 10, 2014 - 11:01pm
In a viewpoint published this week in The Lancet, the Community Research Advisors Group (CRAG) argue that research into bedaquiline ? a new drug, fast tracked for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) ? should proceed cautiously in people with drug-sensitive tuberculosis. CRAG, an international, community-based advisory board for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Tuberculosis Trials Consortium, writing in The Lancet independently, urge researchers to balance the goal of shortening treatment for drug-sensitive TB with patient safety.
Bedaquiline is the first novel drug to be approved for treatment of tuberculosis in forty years. The FDA fast-tracked the approval of the drug after phase 2 studies showed bedaquiline's promising activity against MDR-TB (the drug reduced the average time to a negative TB culture from 18 to 12 weeks, and increased the proportion of participants with a negative culture at 6 months from 58% to 79%). Current treatments for drug-resistant tuberculosis show improved outcomes when continued for 18 to 24 months, and even then cure rates range from 11% to 79% depending on the extent of resistance. This presents a huge burden both on health care facilities and on patients to stick to a strict, toxic, and lengthy regimen, often in settings where available resources and cost make long drug treatments difficult to implement. ..
The Lancet: Novel treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis shows promise, but concerns for patient safety remain
Posted By News On July 10, 2014 - 11:01pm
In a viewpoint published this week in The Lancet, the Community Research Advisors Group (CRAG) argue that research into bedaquiline ? a new drug, fast tracked for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) ? should proceed cautiously in people with drug-sensitive tuberculosis. CRAG, an international, community-based advisory board for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Tuberculosis Trials Consortium, writing in The Lancet independently, urge researchers to balance the goal of shortening treatment for drug-sensitive TB with patient safety.
Bedaquiline is the first novel drug to be approved for treatment of tuberculosis in forty years. The FDA fast-tracked the approval of the drug after phase 2 studies showed bedaquiline's promising activity against MDR-TB (the drug reduced the average time to a negative TB culture from 18 to 12 weeks, and increased the proportion of participants with a negative culture at 6 months from 58% to 79%). Current treatments for drug-resistant tuberculosis show improved outcomes when continued for 18 to 24 months, and even then cure rates range from 11% to 79% depending on the extent of resistance. This presents a huge burden both on health care facilities and on patients to stick to a strict, toxic, and lengthy regimen, often in settings where available resources and cost make long drug treatments difficult to implement. ..