The European Union could raise its funding contribution from the €200 million spent so far to €1 billion in the next phase of the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP).

Leaders of southern African nations are meeting in Mozambique this week to plan an unprecedented attack on an ancient foe: tuberculosis. Fueled by new drug-resistant strains and the HIV/AIDS pandemic, TB is spreading like wildfire through South Africa's mines and to the world beyond.

Veredus Laboratories has launched VereMTBTM, a multiplexed molecular diagnostic chip capable of fast and accurate detection of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Complex (MTBC) and its mutations, as well as 9 other clinically relevant non-tubercular mycobacterium. These mutations are responsible for resistance to multiple drugs and are reinvigorating the global spread of Tuberculosis.

OPKO Health, Inc. (NYSE: OPK) announced today that it was awarded a $1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support the development of a diagnostic test to distinguish between latent tuberculosis and active tuberculosis utilizing OPKO's proprietary molecular diagnostics technology. Utilizing its proprietary technology, OPKO is developing simple blood tests to identify biomarkers for a wide variety of diseases, including neurodegenerative disorders and various malignancies.

During the last UCAB meeting on 29-31 October, 2012, main priorities for the next year were defined, and work undertaken over the last 2 years (since establishment) was summarized.

4th Union Asia Pacific Region Conference on Lung Health, Melia hotel, Hanoi, Vietnam, 10-13 April 2013

South Africa grants almost every patent application it receives, making its patent regime one of the world’s most lenient. While pharmaceutical companies cash in, patients face staggering healthcare costs, and medicines like cancer treatments, third-line antiretrovirals (ARVs) and treatments for drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) are often priced out of reach.

The November 2012 issue of USAID's "Global Health News" newsletter focuses on tuberculosis (TB). The newsletter features a link to a video titled "Voices of TB," an infographic (.pdf) on innovations in TB diagnostics, and links to an IMPACTblog piece and a USAID press release discussing TB diagnostics (November 2012).

North Korea is being plagued by a widespread and difficult strain of tuberculosis and needs urgent measures to curb it, the chairman of a South Korean aid group said Monday.