A new international program, RESPECT-TB, has been launched today in Oxford, UK. This program, coordinated by the Nuffield Department of Medicine at the University of Oxford, in collaboration with the University of the Witwatersrand South Africa and Queen Mary University of London, aims to unite researchers and national tuberculosis programs across five high-burden countries to build one of the world’s richest evidence resources on drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB).
Thanks to a £10 million grant from Wellcome, RESPECT-TB will bring together 15 research organizations, public health bodies, and national TB programs in India, Kazakhstan, Mozambique, South Africa, and Vietnam. The program’s main goal is to generate evidence that will improve patient care, strengthen research capacity, and inform national and global TB policies.
Tuberculosis remains the world’s leading infectious disease killer, causing an estimated 1.23 million deaths each year. Although new treatment regimens, based on bedaquiline, have significantly improved cure rates to around 90%, resistance to these drugs is starting to emerge, posing a threat to one of the biggest advances in TB care in decades.
RESPECT-TB will investigate the prevalence of resistance to the new drugs used to treat drug-resistant TB at the population level, as well as the reasons and mechanisms behind this resistance. This will be accomplished by combining genomic sequencing, laboratory science, and detailed clinical data.
Building on the internationally recognized CRyPTIC Consortium led by Oxford, RESPECT-TB will deliver one of the most comprehensive datasets linking bacterial genomes, drug susceptibility, and patient outcomes. This will provide crucial evidence to improve diagnosis, treatment, and surveillance.
Professor Timothy Walker, Professor of Infectious Diseases at the Nuffield Department of Medicine and leader of the RESPECT-TB coordination, stated: “The introduction of bedaquiline-based treatment regimens has transformed care for people with drug-resistant tuberculosis, but we are now seeing resistance to these medicines emerge in countries with high rates of the disease. RESPECT-TB will help us understand where resistance is emerging, how it develops, and how we can preserve the effectiveness of these treatments.”
Professor Nazir Ismail, a Professor of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at Wits University and the National Health Laboratory Service in South Africa, and a co-lead of RESPECT-TB, added: “RESPECT-TB is a powerful example of how global collaboration can accelerate our understanding of emerging drug resistance and its clinical impact. By bringing together expertise from across multiple regions, we can generate critical evidence that guides global policy and helps protect the gains we have made against drug-resistant TB.”
Professor Graeme Meintjes, Clinical Professor of Infectious Diseases at Queen Mary University of London and Professor of Medicine at the University of Cape Town, and a co-lead of RESPECT-TB, said: “What is exciting about RESPECT-TB is the opportunity to answer questions that clinicians and TB programs face every day. By bringing together data and expertise from five countries, we can better understand why treatment works for some patients and fails for others, and use that knowledge to help improve treatment decisions and patient care.”
Dr. Ana Cehovin, Research Lead at Wellcome, commented: “Drug-resistance continuously undermines decades of progress in tuberculosis treatment, and now threatens the new shorter, more effective bedaquiline-based regimens. Treatment decisions can rely on trial and error, while resistance may go undetected until it has already spread. By bringing together researchers across countries and disciplines, this international collaboration will deepen our understanding of how resistance emerges and evolves. This will be vital for developing better treatments, preserving the tools we already have, accelerating scientific progress, and improving outcomes for those most affected.”
Professor Nguyễn Thụy Thương Thương, Head of the Tuberculosis Group at Oxford University Clinical Research Unit, Vietnam, also expressed his enthusiasm for the program, stating: “By creating one of the world’s most comprehensive open-access resources linking Mycobacterium tuberculosis genomes, laboratory measurements of drug susceptibility, and patient outcomes, RESPECT-TB will provide a lasting resource for researchers, policymakers, and national TB programs. This will accelerate discoveries and help improve care for people affected by drug-resistant tuberculosis worldwide.”
Aside from its scientific goals, RESPECT-TB will also contribute to strengthening laboratory capabilities, genomic sequencing, and research infrastructure through close partnerships with national TB programs. This will aid in expanding surveillance and responding more rapidly to emerging drug resistance.
RESPECT-TB is funded by Wellcome and coordinated by the Nuffield Department of Medicine at the University of Oxford, with Oxford University Clinical Research Unit (OUCRU) in Vietnam as a key partner. The Ellison Institute of Technology, a project partner, is also contributing technical resources through the development of the RESPECT-TB laboratory database.
This news release was distributed by an independent news agency, and neither the agency nor the University of Oxford has any
