Research against tuberculosis: Annual meeting of UNITE4TB

At the invitation of the Tropical Institute at LMU Klinikum München, the members of the UNITE4TB consortium met at the Munich Residence from May 10 to 12 for the 2022 Annual Meeting. This was the first face-to-face meeting of the entire consortium since the project was launched last year. The aim of the public-private research consortium UNITE4TB is to accelerate the development of new tuberculosis (TB) drug combinations. The event kicked off on May 10 with a panel discussion with high-ranking speakers. Dr. Florian Herrmann, Bavarian State Minister and Head of the Bavarian State Chancellery, welcomed the international guests.

The first part of the panel discussion, chaired by Professor Michael Hoelscher (Director of the Tropical Institute at LMU Hospital), focused on public-private partnerships. Panelists Eugene Sun (Senior Vice President, TB Alliance), David Barros (Vice President, GSK, Global Health and International Organizations), Dirk Busch (Director, German Center for Infection Research - DZIF), Masoud Dara (Otsuka, Director Global Health and Alliances) and Giorgio Roscigno (Chairman of Next2People, South Africa) discussed the added value of public-private partnerships in accelerating the development of and access to new, safe and affordable drug combinations for TB patients worldwide.

Following pre-recorded keynote statements from internationally renowned experts such as Anthony Fauci (immunologist and advisor to the US President) and Michael Makanga (Executive Director of EDCTP, The European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership), the participants of the second panel addressed the topic "From clinical trials to patient access". Under the chairmanship of Professor Mario Raviglione (University of Milan), Professor Veronika von Messling (Federal Ministry of Education and Research, BMBF), Tereza Kasaeva (Director of the Global Tuberculosis Program, World Health Organization, WHO), Blessina Kumar (The Global Coalition of TB Advocates), Peter Kim (DAIDS, NIH) and Grania Brigden (Global Fund) discussed the topic.

At the subsequent UNITE4TB annual meeting (May 11-12), all 12 working groups and other project groups presented their activities. These included the Community Advisory Group (CAG), which was set up to represent the interests of people affected by TB in all phases of the project, and the Young Investigators Group (YIG).

The project coordinator Professor Martin Boeree (Radboudumc) and the scientific director Professor Michael Hoelscher (LMU Klinikum) reported on the status of the project, the challenges and the next steps.

Important steps have already been taken in the first year of the project. For example, the sponsor for the first clinical trial was selected and trial centers in Europe, Asia, Africa and South America were shortlisted. A proposal for the clinical trial design was also presented and an Ethics Advisory Board (EAB) was established, consisting of five experts from four WHO regions with complementary expertise.

The hybrid event of this seven-year Innovative Medicines Initiative (now Innovative Health Initiative) funded project, hosted by LMU Klinikum with the support of Lygature and Radboudumc, was a great success. Participants left the meeting full of commitment and motivation for the second year of the project.

In the run-up to the annual meeting, the Tropical Institute at the LMU Hospital (Prof. Michael Hoelscher) organized a TB symposium in collaboration with the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) on May 9 and 10 at the Munich Residenz. The aim of this workshop was to advance current research on clinical phase II studies in the field of TB.

The event brought together leading international TB scientists who presented their current expertise and also discussed competing strategies. The aim is to strengthen the global TB research network in the future, also within the framework of the DZIF's Thematic Translational Unit Tuberculosis, and to disseminate the results to the wider research community.

This format of a scientific workshop will also be continued in the run-up to future annual meetings and a meeting of key players and interest groups in the field of TB will take place.