Research Roundup: the cost of wiping out TB, a global hub for AMR, and US begins $10 million vaccine project against Marburg virus

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign-up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email.Contraceptive jewelry may one day offer women a new approach to meet their family planning needs. Researchers from FHI 360 are exploring using transdermal patch technology to administer contraceptive hormones through patches applied to areas of jewelry—such as earrings, watches, rings, or necklaces—that are in contact with skin, allowing the drug to be absorbed into the body. Initial testing on animals suggests that contraceptive jewelry may deliver sufficient amounts of hormones to provide contraception, however no human testing has been performed to date. Researchers believe the tool could help improve adherence among certain women and allow for more discreet use of contraception, as well as serve the needs of women in developing countries who may have limited access to health care services and long-acting contraceptives such as injectables, implants, and intrauterine devices. Innovators at Cardiff Medicentre and Picofluidics have developed a specific type of microneedle that can be produced for approximately one-tenth of the cost of those currently on the market. Trials have confirmed the viability of their plasma treatment technology that enables the cost-effective production of collections of many thousands of microneedles, which are used to deliver medicines or vaccines, often in the form of a patch applied to a person’s skin. The developers hope to collaborate with partners to commercialize the technology, which they see as having many potential uses including pain-free injection of medications such insulin, vaccines, or intradermal fluid removal for diagnostic purposes and early disease detection. Scientists at Centenary Institute have uncovered a new avenue to improve treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) by increasing the effectiveness of the immune system using widely-available anti-platelet drugs, including aspirin. Researchers used fluorescent microscopy in animal models to observe the build-up of blood clots and the activation of platelets around sites of infection, confirming that TB bacterium hijack platelets from the body's blood clotting system to weaken the immune system. Using anti-platelet drugs to treat the infection, researchers were able to prevent the hijacking, enabling the body to better control the infection. This study provides evidence that platelets have been found to worsen TB and “opens up the possibility that anti-platelet drugs could be used to help the immune system fight off drug resistant TB.”

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign-up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email. A phase II clinical trial, led by the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), found that a two-week treatment of benznidazole was just as effective in treating Chagas— a parasitic disease which causes permanent damage to the heart as well as the nervous and digestive systems—as the conventional eight-week treatment course. The shorter treatment means reduced side effects, which range from skin rashes to peripheral neuropathy, and thus also improved treatment adherence—both of which are critical for the control and elimination of Chagas disease. DNDi hopes to make the disease less debilitating for future patients “and turn this breakthrough discovery into a reality for people affected by the disease.” On Monday, March 11, the Trump administration released its budget proposal for fiscal year 2020. While the budget proposal requested US$291 million for the President’s domestically-focused “Ending the HIV epidemic” plan, —which includes funding for biomedical interventions—the global health community has called out the proposed reduction in funding to fight HIV globally also included in the President’s 2020 budget proposal. Overall, the President’s Budget Request proposes deep cuts to biomedical research across a wide range of federal agencies and to global health programs at the Department of State and the US Agency for International Development. TB Alliance announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted a new drug application for pretomanid, a novel tuberculosis (TB) drug candidate, as part of a treatment regimen for extensively drug-resistant TB; treatment-intolerant, multidrug-resistant TB; and treatment-nonresponsive, multidrug-resistant TB. Pretomanid would be used in combination with bedaquiline and linezolid. In a clinical trial in South Africa using this treatment regimen, 89 percent of study participants resolved their clinical infection after six months of treatment and six months of post-treatment follow up. The FDA granted priority review of this new drug application leveraging the Prescription Drug User Fee Act with an action date expected in the third quarter of this year.