Campaigners have welcomed a u-turn on a European ban on a new TB drug, creating hope of finding new ways of tackling drug-resistant disease.
Delamanid – marketed as Deltyba – is said to be just the second new TB drug to be developed in half a century.
A European advisory committee declined to back its use in July but has now reversed its advice.
Now the European Medicines Agency has recommended that governments should authorise the use of the drug for treatment of multi-drug resistant disease.
The EMA says the drugs benefits outweigh its risks – but are not yet "comprehensive."
The decision was welcomed by the charity Médecins Sans Frontières.
Medical coordinator Dr Jennifer Cohn said it was a "landmark" decision and called for the drug’s Japanese developers to support "compassionate use" of the drug for seriously ill patients.
She said: "What patients really need are all-new multidrug regimens, and clinical trials to test delamanid with other TB medicines are urgently needed if we are to radically improve treatment options.
"To accelerate access and fully realise the potential of this new drug, we need open collaboration to test new multi-drug regimens, we need the drug to be registered widely especially in high-burden countries, and we need assurances that the drug won’t be priced out of reach of national TB programmes."
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