Medicines Patent Pool Sublicenses New Antibiotic Candidate To TB Alliance For Development

By Kim Treanor for Intellectual Property Watch

TB Alliance and the Medicines Patent Pool announced today a licensing agreement for the development of sutezolid, a new antibiotic drug candidate which may be used to treat tuberculosis.

TB Alliance is a not-for-profit organisation which works to find affordable medicines to fight tuberculosis. The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) is a United Nations-backed organisation which works to increase access to HIV, hepatitis C and tuberculosis treatments in low and middle income countries. Medicines Patent Pool was awarded an exclusive licence on the drug candidate from John Hopkins University (US), which holds the patent on the compound. MPP has sublicensed the patent to TB Alliance so that the groups can collaborate in clinical development of the drug.

If effective, sutezolid would be only the third new antibiotic for tuberculosis developed in the last 40 years, the groups said. The disease has the highest mortality rate of any infectious disease, and many of the afflicted have developed resistance to first line treatments. A six month course of treatment for one other antibiotic which was developed recently to treat drug resistant tuberculosis, bedaquiline, brand name Sirturo, has been priced at US$30,000, US$3,000, and US$900 for high, middle and low-income countries, respectively.

While the drugs are effective, their cost and the amount of time necessary to complete a course of treatment have led to criticisms. TB Alliance said it aims to create a new drug regimen for tuberculosis which is effective in a shorter timeframe, accessible and affordable.

[Update:] Separately, UNAIDS said in a release that in 2016, countries set a goal of reducing tuberculosis deaths by 75 percent by the year 2020, as a part of the United Nations Political Declaration on Ending AIDS. UNAIDS has warned that unless urgent action is taken, this target will be missed.

Kim Treanor is an intern at Intellectual Property Watch and a student in the graduate program of International Affairs at the New School in New York, where she studies development, trade and public health.