We had to run our own trial for TB drugs – nobody else was doing it

Tuberculosis kills more people than HIV, but medicines to treat the disease have barely improved in 50 years - it's time for urgent and radical innovation

Four years ago, Mi(C)decins Sans Frontiires (MSF) made the decision to sponsor and run its own tuberculosis clinical trial. The aim was to find a new treatment regimen for drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) that was radically better than what was currently available.

As an organisation that specialises in delivering short-term emergency healthcare, this was a bold and new direction to take. But it was a decision that came from our frustration, anger and impatience on behalf of the more than 20,000 people with TB that we treat every year. We felt compelled to search for improved treatments ourselves because too few pharmaceutical companies, organisations or universities were doing enough about it.