StatinTB is funded by the second European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP2) and will receive € 5 million over the duration of five and a half years starting in January 2019.
The international consortium will implement a proof-of-concept clinical trial to evaluate whether statins, widely used cholesterol-lowering drugs, could be employed as a repurposed drug for host-directed drug therapy (HDT) in tuberculosis.
In addition to the clinical trial, capacity building for the University of Namibia is an important pillar of the project, with activities planned to train clinical, laboratory and administrative staff.
The goal is to show that by adding statins at the end of standard TB therapy, fewer patients will develop chronic lung disease after a tuberculosis episode, which would result in a much higher quality of life, and ultimately in less recurrent tuberculosis.
The outcomes of this project will positively impact the lives of TB patients on various levels:
Patients will benefit from a reduced probability of TB relapse. This means that fewer patients will have to cope with the devastating news of the disease coming back following completion of their treatment, and that subsequent treatment cycles can be avoided.
As acquired drug resistance is particularly common among relapse patients, fewer relapse cases will also help reduce the development and spread of drug resistant TB.
Lastly, after successful completion of their TB treatment, patients will be significantly less likely to develop chronic lung disease, which will lead to a much higher quality of life.
StatinTB will have a duration of five and a half years starting from January 1st 2019.
StatinTB is coordinated by Dr Reto Guler from the University of Cape Town in South Africa, with partners from Switzerland, Namibia, the UK, and Germany.
For a detailed overview of the team members and
how to get in touch.