AstraZeneca has opened a new multi-million dollar research facility in Bangalore, India, which will focus principally on finding new treatments for tuberculosis, a disease which is diagnosed in about 2 million people every year in India and in more than 8 million people worldwide.
At the opening ceremony, AstraZeneca's chief executive, Sir Tom McKillop, said that this facility was set to discover the first new TB drug for nearly 40 years, and with its manufacturing capabilities will make the drug available to developing countries at a low price, in conjunction with local health systems and governments.
He said this facility will work in collaboration with the academic circles to discover a product that is active with a shorter duration of therapy and against latent disease and drug-resistant organisms.