The Tuberculosis Drug Accelerator at year 10: what have we learned?

Bree B Aldridge; David Barros-Aguirre; Clifton E Barry 3rd; Robert H Bates; Steven J Berthel; Helena I Boshoff; Kelly Chibale; Xin-Jie Chu; Christopher B Cooper; Véronique Dartois; Ken Duncan; Nader Fotouhi; Fabian Gusovsky; Philip A Hipskind; Dale J Kempf; Joël Lelièvre; Anne J Lenaerts; Case W McNamara; Valerie Mizrahi; Carl Nathan; David B Olsen; Tanya Parish; H Michael Petrassi; Alexander Pym; Kyu Y Rhee; Gregory T Robertson; Jeremy Michael Rock; Eric J Rubin; Betsy Russell; David G Russell; James C Sacchettini; Dirk Schnappinger; Michael Schrimpf; Anna M Upton; Peter Warner; Paul Graham Wyatt; Ying Yuan

doi:10.1038/s41591-021-01442-2

The Tuberculosis Drug Accelerator at year 10: what have we learned?

Nat Med. 2021 Aug;27(8):1333-1337. doi: 10.1038/s41591-021-01442-2.

Authors

Bree B Aldridge¹, David Barros-Aguirre², Clifton E Barry 3rd³, Robert H Bates², Steven J Berthel⁴, Helena I Boshoff³, Kelly Chibale⁵, Xin-Jie Chu⁶, Christopher B Cooper⁷, Véronique Dartois⁸, Ken Duncan⁹, Nader Fotouhi⁷, Fabian Gusovsky¹⁰, Philip A Hipskind¹¹, Dale J Kempf¹², Joël Lelièvre², Anne J Lenaerts¹³, Case W McNamara¹⁴, Valerie Mizrahi⁵, Carl Nathan¹⁵, David B Olsen¹⁶, Tanya Parish¹⁷, H Michael Petrassi¹⁴, Alexander Pym¹⁸, Kyu Y Rhee¹⁹, Gregory T Robertson¹³, Jeremy Michael Rock²⁰, Eric J Rubin²¹, Betsy Russell²², David G Russell²³, James C Sacchettini²⁴, Dirk Schnappinger¹⁹, Michael Schrimpf¹², Anna M Upton²⁵, Peter Warner⁹, Paul Graham Wyatt²⁶, Ying Yuan⁶

Affiliations

¹ Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA.
² GlaxoSmithKline, Tres Cantos, Spain.
³ National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
⁴ Panorama Global, Seattle, WA, USA.
⁵ University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
⁶ Global Health Drug Discovery Institute, Beijing, China.
⁷ Global Alliance for TB Drug Development, New York, NY, USA.
⁸ Hackensack Meridian Health Center for Discovery & Innovation, Nutley, NJ, USA.
⁹ Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA, USA.
¹⁰ Eisai, Andover, MA, USA.
¹¹ Lgenia, Fortville, IN, USA.
¹² AbbVie, North Chicago, IL, USA.
¹³ Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
¹⁴ Calibr, a division of the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA.
¹⁵ Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, USA. cnathan@med.cornell.edu.
¹⁶ Merck & Co., West Point, PA, USA.
¹⁷ Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, WA, USA.
¹⁸ Janssen-Cilag, Buckinghamshire, UK.
¹⁹ Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
²⁰ The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA.
²¹ Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
²² Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
²³ Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
²⁴ Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA.
²⁵ Evotec, Lyon, France.
²⁶ Drug Discovery Unit, University of Dundee, Dundee, Scotland.

Abstract

The Tuberculosis Drug Accelerator, an experiment designed to facilitate collaboration in TB drug discovery by breaking down barriers among competing labs and institutions, has reached the 10-year landmark. We review the consortium’s achievements, advantages and limitations and advocate for application of similar models to other diseases.

MeSH terms

Antitubercular Agents / chemistry
Antitubercular Agents / therapeutic use*
Drug Design*
Humans
Learning
Time Factors
Tuberculosis / drug therapy*

Substances

Antitubercular Agents

Grants and funding

Z99 AI999999/ImNIH/Intramural NIH HHS/United States