Abstract

WHO estimates one third of world’s population has latent tuberculosis (TB) which indicates that people have been infected by Mycobacterium tuberculosis but are not yet ill with disease and cannot transmit the disease and 10% of those infected are prone to develop active tubercular infection in their life.) In 2011, TB alone remained one of the most important cause of death from infectious disease worldwide. The effective treatments of TB with the frontline drugs requires several months of chemotherapy to eliminate the persistent bacteria. The widespread non compliance in prescribing antitubercular drugs has contributed to the emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR), and extensively drug resistant (XRD) tuberculosis. Nearly 1.3 million multi/extensively drug resistant TB (M/XRD-TB) cases will need to be treated by 2015. In spite of tremendous advances in technology no new drugs have been introduced since the discovery of rifampin. The drugs such as TMC207, PA-824, OPC-67683, SQ109, Linezolid, and PNU-100480 are still in the phase 2 clinical trials and BDM31343, DNB1, and BTZ043 are the new chemical entities. Bedaquiline (TMC207) is expected to enter phase 3 clinical trials to provide early access to patients with XRD and Pre-XRD-TB, and now Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved it to treat MDR-TB but the drug has severe heart problem. It is the first drug with a new mechanism of action for TB in more than 40 years and the first and only one specifically indicated for MDR-TB. Efforts are still eagerly awaited to develop novel, fast acting and safer antimycobacterial agents to treat TB in order to win the battle against this millenary scourge. The present review briefly deals with the recent advancement in the development of newer antitubercular agent.

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