Meeting Report

Amid unprecedented challenges, PDPs continue to develop and deliver lifesaving new medical technologies. Overcoming funding and operational hardships due to COVID-19, PDPs developed more than a dozen new health technologies since the launch of the Keeping the Promise report in early 2021.

The 2023 United Nations High-Level Meeting (HLM) on TB is a critical opportunity to urgently advance the development and delivery of new TB diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines that are accessible and affordable to all who need them.

PDPs have now developed a total of 79 new health technologies since 2010, delivering more than 2.4 billion treatments, tests, and other health tools to people around the world.

Every year, almost half of people with tuberculosis (TB) are not diagnosed or notified to health systems – resulting in millions of preventable deaths.

Chaque année, près de la moitié des personnes atteintes de tuberculose (TB) ne sont pas diagnostiquées ou notifiées vers les systèmes de santé, ce qui entraîne des millions de décès évitables.

TB-CAPT will provide evidence for impactful implementation of tuberculosis (TB) and TB/HIV co-infection diagnostic strategies, including drug-susceptibility testing, through a series of trials in Tanzania, Mozambique, and South Africa.

Next-generation sequencing is a game changer in the fight against drug-resistant TB, and the new WHO recommendation is proof of the power it holds.

To mark World Tuberculosis (TB) Day 2023, FIND released this video with partners, TB experts, and champions, showcasing how partnerships have transformed the management of TB in the past 20 years.

On World TB Day 2023, diagnostics partners brought together SMART4TB, DriveDx4TB, FEND-TB and R2D2 TB Network projects to form the largest-ever coordinated effort to accelerate TB diagnostic development.

About 40% of people who had TB in 2021 are not known to have been diagnosed or treated. Improving access to diagnostics in order to avoid these preventable TB deaths therefore remains a key priority.

Today, in our post-COVID-19 world, the concept of being diagnosed, from the patient or end-user perspective, has undergone a radical shift from centralized laboratories with large, fixed equipment run by highly trained technicians to enabling a result in the palm of a hand, done from the comfort of the end-user’s home.

Drug-resistant TB has been deadlier and much more complicated to treat than drug-susceptible TB and the threat of “superbugs” is increasing around the world. Now, with advances in treatment led by TB Alliance, almost all people with DR-TB can now be treated in the same amount of time and with comparable efficacy as those with DS-TB.

Tackling drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) is critical to successfully controlling and combating antimicrobial resistance (AMR). DR-TB accounts for nearly one third (29%) of all deaths from antimicrobial infection—more than any other disease. Overall, there are approximately a half million cases of DR-TB each year.

Pretomanid and the BPaL regimen are now included in the World Health Organization Guidelines for the Treatment of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis – meaning that, for the first time, almost all patients with DR-TB can be treated in six months with an all-oral regimen.

Pretomanid, a compound developed by the non-profit organization TB Alliance, is part of a three-drug, six month, all-oral regimen for the treatment of people with highly drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB). The combination treatment of bedaquiline, pretomanid and linezolid is known as the BPaL regimen.

BPaL/M is a six-month, all-oral treatment regimen composed of bedaquiline, pretomanid, linezolid, with or without moxifloxacin is a therapy for people with drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB). The World Health Organization (WHO) now prioritizes the BPaL/M regimen over an older regimen that lasted 9-18 months or longer to treat people with DR-TB.

Ukraine was the first high-burden country to adopt the BPaL regimen. A shortened, simplified treatment for DR-TB has been an especially welcome advance for patients who needed treatment amid wartime conditions.

A vaccine is necessary to end the TB pandemic. IAVI and partners continue to make strides to reach this goal.

Member States have a historic opportunity to finally end TB by committing to develop and roll-out new TB vaccines within the next five years at the United Nations High-Level Meeting (HLM) on TB.

New vaccines are needed to tackle this crisis. Vaccines that prevent TB disease would save millions of lives, avert billions of dollars in treatment costs, and help curb the threat of AMR. Developing new TB vaccines by 2030 is within reach if decision-makers prioritize TB vaccine R&D as a signature piece of global health and AMR agendas.

As concerned tuberculosis (TB) survivors, advocates, and researchers, representing 1,188 individuals and organizations from around the world, we write to you on behalf of millions of people affected by this deadly disease each year. TB is one of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases. Each day, nearly 29,000 people fall ill with TB and almost 4,400 people die from this preventable and curable disease. New and effective vaccines are essential to tackle this global health crisis.

On Thursday 7 September, the TB Vaccine Advocacy Roadmap (TB Vax ARM) welcomed Laurianne Desquesses from Global Health Advocates, Sahera Ramzan from RESULTS UK, Leigh Raithby from Results Canada, and the TB Vax ARM’s Shaun Palmer to present on recent TB R&D advocacy activities ahead of the HLM.

The speakers demonstrated the promising innovations in this field. Across the board, they highlighted why it’s critical to increase funding to support such developments.