Why tuberculosis as the first disease target?
TB is the leading cause of death from bacterial infection. WHO reports that one-third of the world’s population is currently infected with TB. The estimated incidence of TB in India is 1.8 million new cases annually with an estimated 370,000 deaths due to TB occuring each year – over 1,000 deaths a day, or 2 TB deaths every 3 minutes. The current TB therapy was developed in the 1960’s; and no major advancement in treatment has emerged for almost half a century. Of the 1,556 new chemical entities marketed worldwide, between 1975 and 2004, only three were for TB. The presently used drugs, with standard therapeutic duration of 6-9 months, – Isoniazid, Rifampicin, Pyrazinamide and Ethambutol– require careful monitoring if drug resistance is to be avoided. The multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB takes longer to treat with second-line drugs, which are more expensive and have stronger side-effects. Extensively drug-resistant (XDR)-TB can develop when these second-line drugs are misused or mismanage
