Development of New MDR-Tuberculosis Drugs (Pharmacology - Research, Safety Testing and Regulation)

The emergence of resistance to anti-tuberculosis drugs, particularly of MDR-TB and newly XDR-TB, has become a major public health problem. The current treatment regiment has several disadvantages, i.e. long treatment period (DOTS takes minimum 6 months) during which tubercle bacilli mutant become resistant to one or more drugs; side effects of the used drugs; and, co-infection of HIV/AIDS. The emergence of MDR-TB has made many currently available anti-TB drugs ineffective. Sleeping latent forms of mutant bacilli resistant against common anti-TB drugs pose the risk of epidemic for the new generation. This book outlines the recent advances in the development of new multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) drugs.