J&J partners with CSIR-IMTECH on TB treatments

The Indian subsidiary of US healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) today announced a new partnership with the Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH), part of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), to unlock the potential of Indian science and help accelerate the discovery of innovative new tuberculosis (TB) treatments.

Under the Memorandum of Understanding, scientists from J&J’s global public health team will work closely with scientists from CSIR-IMTECH, based in Chandigarh, India, on a research and development program to explore potentially more effective, safer, all-oral treatment regimens to tackle multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), as well as new molecular entities to treat all TB patients.

“We are united with India in our determination to make TB history,” said Paul Stoffels, chief scientific officer, Johnson & Johnson, who joined Dr Harsh Vardhan, Minister for Science and Technology, at an event in New Delhi, to announce the Memorandum of Understanding. “While we have made great advances in recent years with the approval of new TB medicines much more needs to be done. By bringing together some of India’s brightest minds with our scientists, we increase the potential to achieve major research breakthroughs that can lead to innovative new treatments for the millions of people in India and around the world who suffer from TB,” Dr Stoffels noted,