Early results to be presented by next World TB Day for pre-XDR TB

Have you ever heard about pre-XDR TB?

Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is a form of tuberculosis that is particularly difficult to treat due to its resistance to two of the most powerful first-line antibiotics. Now, try to imagine a form of TB that is even more rare, resistant, and complicated to treat.

That is what fluoroquinolone-resistant MDR-TB, or pre-XDR TB, is: a strain of TB which has also acquired resistance to the most effective among second-line drugs.

The ongoing endTB-Q clinical trial is a phase III, randomized, controlled, open-label, non-inferiority, multi-country trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of a new, all-oral, shortened regimen for fluoroquinolone-resistant MDR-TB. Led by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Partners In Health (PIH) and Interactive Research and Development (IRD), and mainly funded by Unitaid, it enrolled 324 patients across six countries (India, Kazakhstan, Lesotho, Pakistan, Peru, and Vietnam). endTB-Q is, to date, the only clinical trial with an internal control for the population of pre-XDR-TB patients: this trial aims to produce evidence of the highest quality for the treatment of this often-neglected disease.

Results of the endTB-Q trial will be available in the first months of 2025.