Novartis agrees licensing deal with TB Alliance

Novartis has signed an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement with the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development, also known as the TB Alliance.

Under the terms of the deal, the firm will provide the TB Alliance with drug candidate compounds to fight tuberculosis that have been discovered at the Novartis Institutes for Tropical Diseases.

The company will fully transfer its tuberculosis research and development programme to the TB Alliance, which will take financial and operational responsibility for the continued research, development, approval and distribution of compounds in the portfolio.

Included in the deal is a novel class of drugs called indolcarboxamides that have shown promise against drug-sensitive and multi-resistant strains of the disease.

Mark Fishman, president of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, said: "Tuberculosis is one of the scourges of the developing world and new medicines are desperately needed to combat its continued spread."

Last month, the company entered a new collaboration with the Banner Alzheimer's Institute on a pioneering clinical study in Alzheimer's disease prevention.