Multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis - wiki

Multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB, also known as Vank's Disease) is defined as a form of TB infection caused by bacteria that are resistant to treatment with at least two of the most powerful first-line anti-TB drugs, isoniazid (INH) and rifampicin (RMP).

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB). Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections do not have symptoms, known as latent tuberculosis. About 10% of latent infections progress to active disease which, if left untreated, kills about half of those infected.

On December 28, 2012 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved bedaquiline (marketed as Sirturo by Johnson & Johnson) to treat multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, the first new treatment in 40 years. Sirturo is to be used in a combination therapy for patients who have failed standard treatment and have no other options. Sirturo is an adenosine triphosphate synthase (ATP synthase) inhibitor.

Bedaquiline (trade name Sirturo, code names TMC207 and R207910) is a medication used to treat tuberculosis.It was discovered by a team led by Koen Andries at Janssen Pharmaceutica. When it was approved by the FDA on the 28th December 2012, it was the first new medicine for TB in more than forty years, and is specifically approved to treat multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, the most important medications needed in a basic health system.

Koen Andries is a Belgian Janssen Pharmaceutica and professor at the University of Antwerp. In 2005 he and his team published a discovery about a new di-Aryl-Quinoline-based drug (R207910) which promises a shorter and simpler treatment forTuberculosis (TB).

Janssen Pharmaceutica is apharmaceutical companyheadquartered in Beerse, Belgium. It was founded in 1953 by Paul Janssen.