Seattle Times (09.18.07) - Wednesday, September 19, 2007
On Tuesday, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced its
largest package of grants ever to combat tuberculosis
globally. With the new $280 million commitment, the foundation
brings its total spending on TB research to $740 million. "The
goal is to translate promising scientific leads into tools
that can save millions of lives," said Dr. Tachi Yamada,
president of the foundation's Global Health Program
Around one-third of the world's population is infected with
the TB bacteria. Travel and immigration are causing a
resurgence of the disease in areas where it was largely wiped
out decades ago. Yamada said the case of Atlanta attorney
Andrew Speaker, who traveled internationally while infected
with a drug-resistant TB strain, shows how woefully unprepared
the world is to confront the disease.
The new funding will build on previous foundation grants to
accelerate development of vaccines to fight TB and improve
diagnostic techniques.
TB is still diagnosed by examining sputum samples under a
microscope, an approach that misses about half of infections.
Culturing TB bacteria to confirm a positive test takes 45
days. "Many people with tuberculosis are never diagnosed and
do not receive treatment in a timely manner," said Dr. Giorgio
Roscigno, CEO of the Foundation for Innovative Diagnostics,
which will receive $62 million over five years. The Geneva-
based group aims to develop an accurate TB test that provides
results in approximately two hours.
The foundation is also delving into research on new TB drugs
in the hope of reducing treatment from the standard six to
nine months. But the biggest portion of grant money, $202
million, will go to the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation to
fund early clinical trials on six vaccine candidates. "We
expect one or two of these candidates may make it all the
way," said Dr. Jerald Sadoff, Aeras' president and CEO. If one
of the vaccines is proven effective, it could be approved as
early as 2015.