International Consortium for Trials of Chemotherapeutic Agents in Tuberculosis (INTERTB)
INTERTB is an international consortium created to evaluate the clinical and bacteriological outcomes of chemotherapeutic agents for the treatment of tuberculosis.
- Professors Anthony Coates, Philip Butcher, Denis Mitchison and Dr Tom Harrison (Consultant), Mr. David Coleman (Senior Research Technologist) and Dr. Amina Jindani, (Honorary Senior Lecturer). Centre for Infection, Division of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, St. George’s University of London, London
- Professor Andrew Nunn , MRC Clinical Trials Unit (CTU), Data management and analyses of trials will be carried out at the CTU under the supervision of Professor Andrew Nunn.
- Dr. Nancy Saravia the Director of Scientific Activities, The Centro Internacional de Entrenamiento e Investigaciones Médicas (CIDEIM), based in Cali, Colombia. CIDEIM is a non-profit, non-governmental organization dedicated to biomedical research in infectious diseases and the development of research capability.
- Dr. Bernard Fourie is Associate Researcher with the South African Medical Research Council, Pretoria, South Africa
- Drs Jennifer Furin, Carole Mitnick and Mercedes Becarra of the Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA , will be involved with aspects of the Programme which concern multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDRTB).
INTRODUCTION:
The consortium, which is a not-for-profit charitable organisation, is responsible for designing, conducting and analyses of randomised controlled clinical trials, to be carried out in countries with a high burden of tuberculosis, through a substantial network of treatment services and laboratories with which relationships already have been established. The primary objective of these trials will be to define regimens of treatment which will have high cure rates and will be simple to administer by the National Tuberculosis Programmes of these countries.
Because of their importance in assessing the activity of new antituberculosis drugs, basic studies of factors affecting response to chemotherapy and the study of surrogate markers of relapse will form a major part of the work of the consortium.
In addition, capacity strengthening , to increase the ability of centres to participate in trials, will be an integral part of the consortium’s functions. Expertise is available in trial design and analysis, and in laboratory techniques.
The Coordinating Centre is based at St. George’s Hospital Medical School, London. The International Coordinator, Dr. Amina Jindani, will coordinate all the aspects of the multi-centre trials, including recruitment of participating centres, training local staff, through regular site visits and close monitoring of the general conduct of the trials. Members of the consortium will collaborate in whatever form of supervision is seen to be the most necessary and effective.
