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New Cure for TB Developed
For the first time in nearly 40 years, scientists have produced a drug that in lab tests appears to cure tuberculosis, a disease that is one of the world's worst killers. The antibiotic, called R207910, was developed by a team of Johnson & Johnson scientists who worked quietly on the project for a decade in locales ranging from Raritan, N.J., to Beerse, Belgium. They unveiled the patented work last night in an electronic edition of Science magazine. The compound, which appears to work better and faster than existing treatments, acts like a switch to cut off the energy supply of the mycobacterium that causes tuberculosis. "This is dynamite stuff," said Lee Reichman, executive director of the New Jersey Medical School National Tuberculosis Center in Newark. In his 2002 book, "Timebomb," which details the early 1990s global resurgence of killer TB strains, Reichman castigated the pharmaceutical industry for ignoring the disease and failing to develop new treatments. "I admire J&J for doing this kind of research," Reichman said. "This has phenomenal potential." Tuberculosis, which kills 2 million people annually, is surpassed only by AIDS as the most lethal infectious disease. It is tied inextricably to the AIDS epidemic, erupting in immune-compromised AIDS patients and often killing them before the AIDS virus does. At least 11 million adults are infected with both pathogens, according to statistics maintained by the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development, a nonprofit organization... "Dear Johnson & Johnson, Thank You." Posted by: Anonymoose 2004-12-10 |
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