New LIFT-TB website highlights efforts to transform TB therapy amidst resurgence during COVID-19 pandemic

The world continues to battle against two pandemics: COVID-19 and tuberculosis (TB). TB had long been the deadliest infectious disease—until COVID-19. This new pandemic has shown that new tools, diagnostics, drugs, and vaccines can be developed with the right amount of funding and political will. The same resources are needed to bring the TB pandemic under control and make progress toward a TB-free world. LIFT-TB partners are generating scientific evidence through operational research programs of new TB therapies, and to accelerate global accessibility of new treatments. Highlights in these efforts include:

• The LIFT-TB initiative continues to broaden and accelerate the adoption and scale up of the BPaL regimen for highly drug-resistant forms of TB.
• Patients are actively being treated in six of the seven LIFT-TB countries and 563 healthcare professionals have been trained. Submissions for regulatory approval of pretomanid have been completed in all countries, with two approvals to date (Ukraine and Uzbekistan).
• More information is available on the new LIFT-TB website.

LIFT-TB is supported by Korea International Cooperation Agency, through the Global Disease Eradication Fund (GDEF), and TB Alliance, a non-profit organization working to advance the development of new TB compounds and medicines, with a goal to develop a short, simple, and affordable TB regimen suitable for all people with TB. TB Alliance works closely with partners and researchers to advance both early- and late-stage research. Though many important advances have been made in recent years, the need to invest in TB research and development is even more apparent amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, which has already reversed hard-won progress against TB. In 2020, the world saw the first increase in TB deaths since 2005, and a 15 percent reduction in the number of people treated for drug-resistant TB. LIFT-TB Partners