World TB Day 2025: Our commitment to combatting tuberculosis
On this year’s World TB Day, EDCTP unites with global partners in the belief that the tuberculosis epidemic can be ended. The theme, “Yes! We Can End TB: Commit, Invest, Deliver,” highlights our unwavering commitment through strategic investments, research priorities, and capacity building. This commitment is evident in our investment in research and development of innovative diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutic tools, underscoring the significant impact we can achieve in the global fight against this disease.
Committing to TB research priorities
EDCTP2’s strategic business plan emphasises the importance of addressing unmet medical needs in tuberculosis research. It prioritises innovative TB diagnostic methods, particularly point-of-care tests that identify drug resistance. Through this strategic framework, EDCTP2 supports research aimed at reducing treatment duration, developing new combination regimens, and enhancing our understanding of TB’s intricate interactions with other diseases. A crucial aspect of this commitment is the advancement of multiple vaccines against TB, vital for eliminating this disease.
Additionally, EDCTP actively supports activities in sub-Saharan Africa that foster an environment for conducting innovative research addressing the challenges posed by tuberculosis.
Investing in tuberculosis research
Between 2014 and 2025, EDCTP2 has invested €215.50 million to support 83 projects, including collaborative clinical studies on TB, capacity building, and talent development.
Since 2021, Global Health EDCTP3 has contributed €24.25 million to collaborative research on tuberculosis, building on the success of the previous EDCTP programmes. Under its Work Programme 2025, Global Health EDCTP3 has launched a call for proposals aimed at accelerating the development of vaccines against TB in sub-Saharan Africa, with an indicative budget of €45.9 million.
Delivering impact from our projects
Individuals living with diabetes face an increased risk of developing active TB. The PROTID project (supported under EDCTP2 and Global Health EDCTP3 programmes) aims to determine whether preventive treatment of TB in individuals with diabetes is beneficial and cost-effective. Conducted in Tanzania and Uganda, this project represents the first-ever large-scale randomised controlled trial of preventive treatment for TB in people with diabetes and latent tuberculosis infection. The study will generate crucial information to guide policy and practice regarding the prevention and management of combined TB and diabetes.
A study from the TB-CAPT project examined the integration of the WHO-approved Xpert MTB/XDR test within South Africa’s TB diagnostics system. It showed the efficacy of the Xpert MTB/XDR test in detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis and assessing drug resistance in residual sputum from Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra. The Xpert MTB/XDR test yielded comprehensive resistance results in 84% of cases, compared to 66% with routine testing, reducing result turnaround from 15 days to just 23 hours. This innovative use of residual specimens enhances diagnostic availability and ensures that people with drug-resistant TB receive a rapid diagnosis and can receive the appropriate treatment without delay, thusmarking a significant advance in the fight against tuberculosis.
Building capacity for future research
An important goal of the EDCTP programmes is to enhance the capacity of sub-Saharan African countries to conduct clinical research. To facilitate this, EDCTP ensures that support for capacity-building development is embedded within the funding of clinical trials.
The PanACEA Consortium was established not only to evaluate novel TB drugs and combinations but also to build capacity for TB drug trials in Africa. PanACEA aims to improve clinical trial methodologies, thereby increasing the efficiency of drug development and enhancing the likelihood of success. Landmark trials conducted by this consortium aim to shorten TB treatment duration and have introduced novel clinical trial designs previously unused in infectious disease research.
PanACEA and its sister grant SIMPLICI-TB have developed significant microbiology and biomarker research capacity and infrastructure for TB drug trials in Gabon and Malawi. These research centres are currently involved in the ongoing EDCTP2-funded STEP2C trial (part of PanACEA), evaluating increased doses of rifampicin and optimised doses of pyrazinamide and moxifloxacin, as well as the pragmatic OptiRiMoxTB trial with an optimised dose of rifampicin and moxifloxacin (part of SIMPLICI-TB).
EDCTP has also made significant investments in human capacity through its extensive fellowship programme. Many EDCTP Fellows have assumed leadership positions in African science, generating high-quality research outputs on poverty-related infectious diseases, including tuberculosis. A total of 47 EDCTP Fellows are working on tuberculosis research.
In her EDCTP Senior Fellowship, Dr Mareli Claassens (Namibia) is conducting a detailed investigation of drug-resistant TB in hotspots of this dangerous pathogen, including among disadvantaged ethnic minority populations. By synthesising multiple sources of data, including whole genome sequence data, she aims to provide a clearer picture of transmission patterns and identify potential strategies for active case finding.