Tuberculosis Diagnostics Pipeline
Over the past decade, there has been an unprecedented level of interest and activity focused on the development of new tools for TB diagnosis, largely because of the involvement and engagement of agencies such as the Stop TB Partnership's New Diagnostics Working Group (NDWG), the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND), the Global Laboratory Initiative (GLI), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), several industry partners, non-governmental agencies, and national TB programs. Funding agencies such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM), and UNITAID have provided the much needed resources and impetus to push the new tools agenda, in keeping with the Global Plan to Stop TB. As a consequence, we now have a strong pipeline of improved or new tools for TB diagnosis. The 2010 NDWG updated pipeline is shown below:For an in depth review of current status of TB biomarkers and diagnostics, see the 2010 Lancet TB Series publication: [Link]
