Russian developer pushes brand new tuberculosis drug

Infectex, a private Russian biotech company, is collaborating with international colleagues in a bid to develop and commercialize a new drug to fight tuberculosis

Infectex, a private Russian biotech company, is collaborating with international colleagues in a bid to develop the Q203, an innovation drug to fight tuberculosis, and then commercialize it in Russia and the surrounding CIS member-state markets, Russian Venture Company (RVC) reported. In its effort to push the project, the Russian company earlier this week inked a license agreement with Qurient, a Korean biotech firm, which is reported to have granted Infectex exclusive rights for both the development and the commercialization of the new drug candidate. The Q203 is believed to be able to block the growth of M.tuberculosis, clinical isolators that cause multiple drug resistance (MDR), thus aggravating the clinical course of the disease. At this point of animal testing, the candidate is reported to have revealed ?efficiency in very small doses.? Infectex has plans to continue preclinical trials and is gearing up for the launch of a series of clinical trials in early 2015. In 2012, there were more than 240,000 tuberculosis patients in Russia, of whom an estimated 33,700 had developed multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis, RVC said...