LIFT-TB Philippines launched to commence the
operational research using the BPaL regimen
LIFT-TB (Leveraging Innovation for Faster Treatment of Tuberculosis) is an initiative of the TB Alliance, a not-for profit organization based in New York, dedicated to finding faster-acting and affordable drug regimens to fight TB. Funded jointly by TB Alliance and the Republic of Korea, through the Global Disease Eradication Fund (GDEF), LIFT-TB will support some of the countries most affected by multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), namely, the Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.
The LIFT-TB project will support the operations research for the 6-month, all-oral, three-drug BPaL regimen composed of Bedaquiline, Pretomanid and Linezolid in the Philippines. Previously given under a clinical trial to 109 patients with extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB), MDR-TB treatment intolerant and non-responsive patients in South Africa, the Nix-TB trial in 2015, yielded 90% treatment success. Because of these excellent results, the WHO recommended in its 2020 Consolidated Guidelines, the use of this regimen under operations research for the same population of MDR-TB patients.
In the Philippines, the International Tuberculosis Research Center (ITRC), Korea is the regional lead coordinating organization in partnership with the Tropical Disease Foundation (TDF) as the local coordinating organization. TDF will assist to provide planning, administrative and logistics support to the project, conduct needs assessment of the research sites, and project monitoring.
The country launch of LIFT-TB Philippines is set on 18 December 2020 @ 9-10:30 AM (PhST) organized by the TDF in collaboration with the NTP. This Launch expects to gather around 200 participants signaling project commencement. The Department of Health will announce its endorsement of this undertaking within the National TB Control Program through a Department Memorandum. Twelve research sites across the country will be implementing the study making BPaL accessible to eligible patients.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria through the Philippine Business for Social Progress will also provide support for the research aspect of the project. The Jose B. Lingad Memorial Hospital and the Lung Center of the Philippines will be the project investigators.
Dr. Roberta Romero, TDF President says “TDF’s participation in this project is a tribute in memory of its Founder, Dr. Thelma E. Tupasi.” TDF was the NGO that pioneered the management of drug-resistant TB in the country in the year 2000 with technical support from the Green Light Committee then housed in WHO-Geneva. At that time, M/XDR-TB patients were treated daily with 5-7 medicines (>15 pills a day) given for at least 20-24 months plus an injectable for 6 months. Patients had to endure the adverse events that included permanent hearing loss, renal failure, not to mention the pain of daily injections. They simply wanted to be cured of their MDR-TB.
The BPaL regimen is a striking contrast with only at most 7 pills to take with no injection. Active TB drug safety monitoring and management will be an integral component of the project implementation to guard patients against the adverse events that are mostly associated with Linezolid. Patients and health workers look forward to the BPaL regimen being made available to the patients who need it most.