Drug Resistant TB

Needed: new antibiotics

The WHO has reaffirmed the critical need for research and development (R&D) of new antibiotics to tackle the threat of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB). “Addressing drug-resistant TB research is a top priority for WHO and for the world,” said Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General. “More than $800 million per year is necessary to fund research into new antibiotics to treat TB." The MDR-TB public health crisis continues: there were an estimated 580,000 cases and 250,000 related deaths in 2015. Only 125,000 were started on treatment, and half of those were cured. Only two new antibiotics to address MDR-TB have completed phase-II B trials in the past 50 years. Both are still in phase-III trials.

Anorexia

A cure in the brain?

Deep brain stimulation might alter the brain circuits that drive anorexia nervosa symptoms and help improve patients’ mental and physical health, according to a small study published in The Lancet Psychiatry . Despite having the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disorder, there are few effective ways to manage treatment-resistant anorexia. While the study only included 16 patients, it suggests that the intervention is safe and could help improve some symptoms of anorexia, but more research is needed, a note from the journal said. Worldwide, 0.5 per cent of people have anorexia, and teenage girls account for the majority of cases.

Regulators

EU-US inspection deal

Regulators in the EU and the US have agreed to recognise inspections of manufacturing sites for human medicines conducted in their respective territories. Under the new agreement, EU and US regulators will rely on each other’s inspections in their own territories. This will enable both the EU authorities and the USFDA to focus on other parts of the world where active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and medicines for the EU or the US markets are manufactured. Around 40 per cent of finished medicines marketed in the EU come from overseas and 80 per cent of the manufacturers of APIs for medicines available in the EU are outside the Union.

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