Purpose of review: Recent advances in the development of new drugs and regimens provide hope that well tolerated, effective, and shorter-duration treatments for tuberculosis (TB) will become available. This review covers the recent trials of new TB drugs and regimens.
Recent findings: Moxifloxacin and levofloxacin have equally good efficacy and safety in the early phase of treatment of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), and linezolid has the potential to cure refractory cases of MDR-TB. Bedaquiline and delamanid may be the best drug candidates for enhancing treatment options for MDR-TB. New chemicals, such as sutezolid, AZD5847, PA-824, SQ109, and BTZ043, show potent activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Late-generation fluoroquinolones in combination with the first-line and second-line anti-TB drugs have been used to shorten the treatment duration in drug-susceptible and MDR-TB.
Summary: New drugs and new combination regimens in clinical trials are expected to increase therapeutic efficacy and shorten treatment duration in both drug-susceptible and drug-resistant TB.