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Review
. 2019 Oct 24;36(12):166.
doi: 10.1007/s11095-019-2704-6.

Why Wait? The Case for Treating Tuberculosis with Inhaled Drugs

Miriam Braunstein  1 , Anthony J Hickey  2   3 , Sean Ekins  4   5
Affiliations
Review

Why Wait? The Case for Treating Tuberculosis with Inhaled Drugs

Miriam Braunstein et al. Pharm Res. .

Abstract

The discovery of drugs to treat tuberculosis (TB) was a major medical milestone in the twentieth century. However, from the outset, drug resistance was observed. Currently, of the 10 million people that exhibit TB symptoms each year, 450,000 have multidrug or extensively drug resistant (MDR or XDR) TB. While greater understanding of the host and pathogen (Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Mtb) coupled with scientific ingenuity will lead to new drugs and vaccines, in the meantime 4000 people die daily from TB. Thus, efforts to improve existing TB drugs should also be prioritized. Improved efficacy and decreased dose and associated toxicity of existing drugs would translate to greater compliance, life expectancy and quality of life of Mtb infected individuals. One potential strategy to improve existing drugs is to deliver them by inhalation as aerosols to the lung, the primary site of Mtb infection. Inhaled drugs are used for other pulmonary diseases, but they have yet to be utilized for TB. Inhaled therapies for TB represent an untapped opportunity that the pharmaceutical, clinical and regulatory communities should consider.

Keywords: Mycobacterium tuberculosis; inhaled drug delivery; tuberculosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest

SE is CEO and owner of Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and has filed a provisional patent “Treatment for Tuberculosis”. AJH has filed a provisional patent “Dry powder formulations of antituberculosis drug methods of treatment and using the same” and PCT/US2018/36351 “CPZEN compositions and uses”.

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