Eisai has joined the Tuberculosis Drug Accelerator (TBDA) partnership, a new initiative that aims to speed the discovery of essential new treatments for tuberculosis (TB). The TBDA partnership, launched in June 2012 through a collaboration between several pharmaceutical companies, research institutions and with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, targets the discovery of new TB drugs by working together on early-stage research. The long-term goal of the partnership is to create a new TB drug combination that has the potential to cure patients in one month only, compared to the six months of treatment required by existing treatments.
 
Eisai will provide targeted sections of its compound libraries for screening against TB and share identified and confirmed hits with other TBDA partners. Eisai will also work with other partners to facilitate the development of new TB therapies.