NEW YORK, NY (March 8, 2019)—TB Alliance’s new drug application (NDA) for the novel tuberculosis (TB) drug candidate pretomanid has been accepted for review by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The application is for the use of pretomanid as part of a new regimen, in combination with bedaquiline and linezolid, for the treatment of extensively drug-resistant (XDR) TB, treatment intolerant multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB, and treatment non-responsive MDR-TB.
The NDA for pretomanid has been granted Priority Review by FDA. The Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) action date for an FDA decision is in third quarter 2019.
TB Alliance will work with manufacturing partners to ensure that pretomanid, if approved for use in the BPaL regimen, will be accessible to those who need it.
About Pretomanid and the BPaL Regimen
Pretomanid is a new chemical entity and a member of a class of compounds known as nitroimidazooxazines. It has been studied in 20 clinical trials alone or in combination with other anti-TB drugs. Since TB Alliance began development of pretomanid in 2002, it has been administered in a clinical trial setting to more than 1,200 people in 14 countries.
The BPaL regimen (comprised of bedaquiline, pretomanid and linezolid) was first studied clinically in the Phase 3 Nix-TB trial. Nix-TB participants with XDR-TB and treatment intolerant or nonresponsive MDR-TB were enrolled for treatment with the BPaL regimen for six months, extendable to nine months, with the intent to cure. Nix-TB is an open label, single arm trial. According to a modified intention-to-treat analysis of interim results on the first 75 participants presented at the 2018 Union World Conference on Lung Health, 89% of the trial participants had a favorable outcome with their clinical infection resolved and sputum cultures negative for TB after six months of treatment and six months of post-treatment follow-up.
About Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis is a global disease, found in every country in the world. It is the leading infectious cause of death worldwide. In 2017, 10 million people fell ill from active TB and 1.6 million died. It is an airborne disease that can be spread by coughing or sneezing. Cases of drug-resistant TB continue to increase, with more than half a million cases of drug-resistant TB reported in 2017 and an estimated 127 countries reporting cases of XDR-TB.
About TB Alliance
TB Alliance is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to finding faster-acting and affordable drug regimens to fight TB. Through innovative science and with partners around the globe, we aim to ensure equitable access to faster, better TB cures that will advance global health and prosperity. TB Alliance operates with support from Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research through KfW, Global Health Innovative Technology Fund, Indonesia Health Fund, Irish Aid, Medical Research Council (United Kingdom), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, United Kingdom Department for International Development, UK Department of Health, and the United States Agency for International Development.
Photo caption: Illustration of mycobacterium tuberculosis – the bacteria that causes TB