Novartis has signed an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement with the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance) for compounds to fight tuberculosis (TB) that have been discovered at the Novartis Institutes for Tropical Diseases (NITD).

Under the agreement, NITD will fully transfer its TB research and development program to TB Alliance, which will take financial and operational responsibility for continued research, development, approval, and distribution of compounds in the portfolio. Included is a novel class of drugs called indolcarboxamides that are active against drug-sensitive and multi-resistant strains of TB. One of these preclinical compounds NITD304, blocks MmpL3, a protein essential for the TB bacterium’s survival.

Novartis has collaborated in the past with TB Alliance. The company also is involved with discovering medicines for the developing world, particularly for new therapies for treating parasitic diseases such as malaria, and human African trypanosomiasis, also known as sleeping sickness, as well as viral disease such as dengue fever.

Source: Novartis