TAG’s 2026 Pipeline Report: TB Treatment

28 October 2026

Treatment Action Group (TAG) released the latest installment of its 2026 Pipeline Report series on TB Treatment, written by TB project co-director Lindsay McKenna.

The pipeline of new TB drugs is busy with candidates advancing more quickly than ever before. But questions important for informing the eventual introduction of the next generation of new treatments to TB programs are not yet being addressed by the ongoing or planned studies catalogued in the 2026 TB Treatment Pipeline Report.

The report examines recent trial results and the state of the clinical research pipeline. Tracking 22 new and repurposed drugs, it highlights fast-moving candidates, unfinished business for existing regimens, and persistent gaps.

Inside the report:

1. A new generation of TB drugs are already in or soon to enter phase 3. Eight drugs offer advantaged alternatives to existing drugs in the same class (e.g., sorfequiline, contezolid) or totally novel mechanisms of action (e.g., quabodepistat, ganfeborole).
2. A shorter treatment for children with TB meningitis falls short. The Shortened Intensive Treatment for Children with Tuberculous Meningitis (SURE) trial failed to show that a six-month intensive regimen was as good as the standard 12-month treatment, challenging current World Health Organization conditional advice and underscoring the need for further research.
3. Measuring what matters to people with TB. Most trials ask whether a new regimen is “no worse than” the existing standard of care, using microbiological and clinical measures. The report argues that is not enough, and calls for evaluating new regimens in terms of community-informed “person-centered outcomes” that better capture TB treatment and recovery experiences.
4. Advance a multidisciplinary research agenda on pre-extensively drug-resistant TB (pre-XDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB). As drug resistance remains a major challenge to TB treatment, research must prioritize these areas — particularly bedaquiline-resistant TB — to help deliver better treatment options to those who need them most.

Source: Treatment Action Group