Treating Tuberculosis​

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We are evaluating new, shorter and safer treatments to treat people with TB disease, including drug-resistant TB.​​​

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Improving treatment outcomes for drug-resistant TB 

 

Drug-resistant TB affects >450,000 people each year, threatening global progress towards TB elimination. The groundbreaking TB PRACTECAL trial and our recent IPD meta-analysis resulted in shorter and safer all-oral MDR TB regimens endorsed by WHO. However, more needs to be done to improve optimal patient-centred care that limits post-TB morbidity. We aim to develop shorter, safer, and more effective treatment regimens for MDR-TB, contribute to phase 2 trials evaluating the safety and efficacy of novel and repurposed antibiotics, and assess the implementation of optimal person-centred and personalised MDR-TB treatment approaches, including the use of therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM).

 

Our Approaches

 

i. Our experienced clinical trialists will implement multi-centre trials that evaluate new drugs and approaches to treat drug-resistant TB. This includes the first Phase 3 trial of treatment for isoniazid mono-resistant TB, to be implemented in Australia, Vietnam and Canada.

 

ii. We will screen existing antibiotics for activity against M. tuberculosis, assess drug synergy and drug-drug interactions, and use computational medicinal chemistry to explore more active analogues

 

iii. We will evaluate a person-centred approach to care for drug resistant TB in a multi-country study linked to the implementation of a newly WHO-endorsed all-oral BPaLM regimen

 

iv. Once proof-of-concept has been established, we will assess the feasibility, effect and cost-effectiveness of tailored MDR TB treatment approaches in high TB incidence settings, including Vietnam

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Shorter and safer treatments for drug-susceptible TB

 

The standard six-month four-drug treatment for drug susceptible TB had been the global standard of care for over 40 years. However, the long treatment duration and inclusion of poorly tolerated drugs results in sub-optimal adherence, unnecessary morbidity, and substantial healthcare costs. We are undertaking clinical trials exploring novel shorter treatment options for patients with non-severe DS-TB and conduct implementation research to guide the scale-up of these new shorter regimens.

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Our Approaches

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i. We will implement clinical trials of novel treatments for drug-resistant and drug-susceptible TB in collaboration with our international partners. An example of our work is the CRUSH TB Trial, a phase 2 platform trial being undertaken in partnership with the US Tuberculosis Trials Consortium and the Sydney Vietnam Institute