Will
it take 3 months for TB cure?
In a development that holds great hope in the
fight against tuberculosis, an Ahmedabad-basedpharmaceutical and research
centre has come up with a capsule that can reduce the treatment time from 6-9
months to just three months.
The BV Patel Pharmaceutical Education and
Research Development (PERD) centre has come up with a novel capsule, which
contains Rifampicin and Isoniazid. This capsule helps in delivering 100% dosage
of the former.
It should be noted that at present the
formulation of Rifampicin and Isoniazid available in the market only delivers
70% of Rifampicin dose. This is because in the present formulation Rifampicin
ended up reacting with Isoniazid in the acidic medium of stomach.
It should be noted that a better dose of
Rifampicin is crucial in the fight against tuberculosis.
The new capsule, when swallowed, prevents the
reaction as Rifampicin is released in the stomach and remains there for 5 to 6
hours while Isoniazid is released in the intestine. Dr CJ Shishoo, honorary
director of PERD said that as the capsule gives very high Rifampicin levels in
blood, it is also expected to treat the disease in a shorter time of say three
months.
“At present, a patient needs to take TB medicines
for 6 to 9 months. But often patients discontinue it in the middle thinking
they have been cured thus leading to relapse. But with the reduced treatment
time, patient compliance will go up,” said Dr Shishoo. He said that TB has
remained defiant with India having the maximum number of TB patient at around 2
million. We also record 5 lakh deaths every year due to the disease, he
said.“The clinical trials for the new capsules are going on at the All India
Institute of Medical Sciences, in New Delhi and final results are likely to be
available at the end of the year,” he said.
Dr Manish Nivsarkar, director PERD however, said
that it will take about 3 to 4 years before the capsule hits the market. On why
the fight against TB hasn’t been very successful in the country, he said it was
because of lack of awareness, poor detection rate, lack of diagnostic test and
untrained physicians.
Dr Nivsarkar also said that the most unfortunate
thing with the disease is that once the treatment is over, the bacteria can
still relapse and may even develop into multi drug resistant tuberculosis
(MDR-TB), which at present has no proven treatment.
“There has been no new anti tubercular drug for
the last 40 years or so,” he said.
Source: www.dnaindia.com
11.06.2012
Nothing
in the world is ever completely wrong. Even a stopped clock is right twice a
day
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