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Stop TB Partnership Announcement
21 August 2015
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In this edition of the Bulletin, we highlight the progress of the Working Groups in the first half of 2015, and share information on new developments. 
Stop TB Partnership Bulletin on Working Groups
Issue 3: January - June 2015

21 August – Geneva, Switzerland – The Working Groups of the Stop TB Partnership provide inputs on critical strategic issues for TB globally, based on which the Board takes decisions. One of the strategic goals of the Partnership is to strengthen support for the working groups and to facilitate collaboration between them. The Partnership identifies opportunities and gaps for new partners to engage in Working Groups through ongoing and regular dialogue.

Working Groups sends regular updates to the Partnership Secretariat regarding their activities and upcoming events. In this edition of the Bulletin we highlight the progress of the Working Groups in the first half of the year 2015 and share information on new developments and their work.
 
  1. Implementing Working Groups:
 
  1. Working Group on the Global Drug-resistant Initiative (GDI)
The Third Core Group meeting of the Global Drug-resistant TB Initiative was held in Geneva on the 1 May 2015 with the objectives of following up on recommendations from the GDI/GLI Joint Partners Forum. The recommendations included the issue of the “call to action on the introduction of new anti-TB drugs”; follow up on action points agreed upon during the 2nd GDI Core Group meeting and subsequent monthly teleconferences; providing an update on the progress of the GDI Task Forces, and the Infection Control (IC) sub−group; reviewing the strategic priorities of GDI and discussing the GDI "costed framework" and the work plan for 2015.

The Report is available here.
 
  1. Global Laboratory Initiative ( GLI)
A GLI/GDI Joint Partners Forum for strengthening and aligning TB Diagnosis and treatment was held on the 27-30 April at WHO HQ. The goal of the Joint Partners Forum was to bring together representatives from country TB control programmes, international institutions and initiatives, nongovernmental organizations, academic and research institutes from developed and developing countries, patient communities, the TB Supranational Reference Laboratory network, industry representatives and funding agencies, working in partnership to address the challenges of increasing access to early diagnosis and treatment of all persons with TB, including drug-resistant TB and TB/HIV.

The Report is available here. 
 
  1. TB/HIV Working Group
 
  1.  Subgroup on Public-Private Mix (PPM) for TB Care and Control
The activities of the PPM Subgroup for the year 2015 began with the first teleconference of the core group held on 17 February 2015. The core group members presented their ongoing activities and those planned for the year: 1. PPM is a part of the USAID supported Challenge TB initiative notably in Indonesia, Bangladesh and Myanmar. Indonesia is especially critical in view of ongoing health reforms. 2. The WHO draft status paper on mandatory TB case notification (which includes responses from 40 countries) will be shared with core group members for feedback. 3. India’s planned national programme review had an important PPM component. Some core group members participated in the review. 4. WHO AFRO is currently supporting 8 countries to strengthen the PPM components of Global Fund Concept Notes. 5. Incorporating a strong PPM component into the implementation guidance for the End TB Strategy.

Subsequent to the Core Group conference call, the draft of the status paper on mandatory case notification was shared with core group members who offered substantive and useful comments.

The second teleconference was not organized but was agreed that in the absence of substantive issues that could benefit from a discussion in a teleconference, the Secretariat will prepare a draft agenda for the face-to-face meeting of the Core Group planned in Cape Town and share it with the Core Group members for their input. A full meeting of the Subgroup will not be feasible in Cape Town. It could be held sometime early next year in a country with advanced PPM programmes with innovative initiatives in place.

During the period under report, William Wells, the co-chair of the Subgroup, led the preparation and publication of a well-researched state-of-art paper summarising the past, the present and the future of private sector engagement in TB with a focus on Asia. The paper, published in the open access journal Plos Medicine, has been widely welcomed and appreciated. Moreover, a framework on PPM for MDR-TB was also published early this year. The PPM core group gave input into its preparation. 
  1. Childhood TB Subgroup
In the first half of 2015, the Secretariat of the Childhood TB subgroup has requested the translation of the “Roadmap for Childhood Tuberculosis: Towards Zero Deaths” into French and Spanish to further reach out and scale up the response to childhood TB.

The French version is expected to be available later in August 2015 and the Spanish version will be available soon after. The original version in English is available here and on the Stop TB Partnership website here. 
 
The Secretariat organized a core team conference call on 10 March 2015 that discussed and agreed on the plans for 2015 including for World TB Day 2015.

Various updates were given, among others, on the WHO consultation on research for TB Elimination; the UNITAID-funded Speeding Treatments to End Paediatric TB (STEP-TB) project; the NIAID biomarkers workshop; emerging issues in ethics and human rights of TB as WHO is updating its 2010 Guidance; and on ongoing clinical trials. In addition, Otsuka was invited to share their plans to enable future use of Delamanid in children and adolescents. The next core team conference call will be to discuss the plans for the annual meeting of the childhood TB subgroup scheduled for the 3 December 2015 in Cape Town, South Africa.
  1. TB Infection Control Sub group
The goal of the TB Infection Control Subgroup is to develop, test, monitor, evaluate, advocate and support the implementation of policy, tools and procedures to promote effective TB infection control in health care and congregate settings.

Some of the activities of the group includes the revision of the general TB components of the WHO budgeting and One Health tools which have been made available on the web by WHO.

The revision of the proposed new Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation (UVGI) guidelines was completed. Through TB CARE II funding, a consultative meeting was held in Bethesda, USA on 5 and 6 May on UVGI dosing guidelines. One of the outcomes of the meeting was to plan two demonstration projects (one in Ethiopia and one in India) to include these in the budget proposal for the additional 2015 funding. A written report of the UVGI consultative meeting is being prepared.

The TB Infection Control sub group held a two-day meeting providing an opportunity for key players to consolidate their thinking and produce a final draft of the strategic plan. Specifically, the group covered the following tasks:
  • Review and update on development of strategic elements
  • Overview of key elements of strategy, format and template for SMART goals
  • Debrief on stakeholder discussions
  • Final drafts of the vision, mission and strategic goals
  • Agreeing sub-objectives and overall time frame
  • Production of working draft
  • Testing working draft with key players
  • Developing medium term projects
  • Finalizing the draft strategy
  • Communicating the strategy – agreement on approach.
The strategic plan confirmed the vision of an end to TB transmission in institutional and community settings worldwide and leadership in TB infection prevention and control through global partnerships. The mission is to advocate and lead implementation of effective TB infection prevention and control
The following strategic priorities were identified:
  • Strategic objective 1:  To make the case for preventing TB transmission as a strategic priority worldwide
  • Strategic objective 2:  To identify key partners and work with them collaboratively to achieve our common goals
  • Strategic objective 3:  To broaden the evidence base about TB infection prevention and control, and disseminate to improve practice
  • Strategic objective 4:  To monitor and evaluate the impact of TB infection prevention and control measures
  • Strategic objective 5:  To sustain improvement in TB infection prevention and control through better professional practice and our contribution to strengthening health systems
II. Research Working Groups / New Tools Working Groups

In order to assist countries in turning the WHO End TB Strategy into concrete operational plans for the period 2016 - 2020, the Global Plan to Stop TB 2016-2020 presents different investment packages across different country settings, costs associated and suggests approaches for future TB efforts including a meaningful engagement with the private sector. It looks at the research and development areas for TB, pipelines and needs of funding to advance the development and roll-out of new tools. It includes communities, key populations and people affected by TB by putting them at the centre of the entire thinking of TB efforts. The New Tools Working groups are active in the development of the Global Plan to Stop TB 2016-2020.
  1. Working Group on New TB Vaccines (WGNV)
 
The 4th Global Forum on TB Vaccines took place in Shanghai, China from 21 – 24 April 2015, marking the first time that this important convening on TB vaccine research and development was held in Asia. This landmark event brought together nearly 300 researchers, product developers, policy makers, advocates, and other stakeholders from more than 30 countries to share the latest research and findings in the field, to discuss the path forward for this critical research, and to foster new partnerships and collaborations.

The 4th Global Forum on TB Vaccines was convened under the auspices of the Stop TB Partnership Working Group on New vaccines and organized by Aeras and TBVI, together with local co-organizers Fudan University and the Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital.

The biannual Global Forum on TB Vaccines is an important opportunity to monitor progress in the field and to advance a common agenda that is developed and driven by the TB vaccine research community. The programme covers all aspects of TB vaccine research and development, from basic research through to clinical trials, manufacturing, access, advocacy and other important topics. The 3rd Global Forum was held in Cape Town in March 2013, the 2nd Global Forum was held in Tallinn, Estonia in September 2010, and the first Global Forum was held in Geneva, Switzerland in 2001.

Detailed information and Presentations from the 4th Global Forum on TB Vaccines are available here. 
 
  1. New Diagnostics Working Group (NDWG)
 
The New Diagnostic Working Group partnered with Critical Path to TB Drug Regimens (CPTR), FIND and a consortium of other international stakeholders to develop a Rapid Drug Susceptibility Test (RDST) Data Sharing Platform. The initiative addresses the need for a centralized data resource for globally diverse genomic and other clinically relevant TB data. Data contributed from a variety of research, academic and government bodies will be reviewed for quality in a transparent manner, standardized, and eventually made accessible to TB researchers and clinicians. This collaborative effort will contribute to advance the understanding of genetic mutations and mechanisms associated with drug resistance, thus supporting the development of new diagnostic tests to detect drug-resistant TB.
Read more about it here. 
 
On 14 May 2015, the NDWG organized in partnership with FIND an Expert workshop on the development of best practices for performance and cost-effectiveness studies of tests targeting latent TB (LTBI), which was hosted by the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. The objective of the workshop was to inform researchers and test developers in the field of LTBI in order to enable optimized study design that will produce data for policy evaluation. Participants explored various research questions for LTBI studies as well as the development of Target Product Profiles for a test for progression of LTBI. The delivery of such a test should enable to reliably identify individuals at risk of progression from latent infection to active TB disease in order to implement targeted preventive therapy and cut transmission, thus supporting the ultimate goal of TB elimination and the targets of the new End TB Strategy.
 
I. Working Group on New TB Drugs (WGND)

Updates to Global TB Pipeline including the addition of new pages to fully track ongoing, potential, completed, and discontinued projects. This online resource is used widely within the TB research community and allows for an improved user experience. Visit www.newtbdrugs.org to see updates and information.

The Working Group on New TB Drugs have contributed to the development of new drugs section in the Global Plan to Stop TB 2016-2020. Ensuring that TB drug development along with all new tool development and research is well represented in the new Global Plan is critical given their importance in truly ending the epidemic of TB.

Upcoming events of the group include consulting with the TB Drug Development Community on the new Global Plan and the needs and vision for TB research in the context of the goal of ending TB. Attending the Gordon Research Conference on TB Drug Discovery and Development to be held in July 2015 and the Annual meeting of the WGND is planned to be held in conjunction with the Union World Lund Conference in Cape Town in December 2015 and provide updates to all stakeholders on the TB drug development for the Global Plan.

For more information please visit: http://www.stoptb.org/ or write to us at partnerships@stoptb.org