ERA4TB’s annual consortium meeting held in Sweden between 13-14th May, was for the first time followed by a full-day ERA4TB-UNITE4TB joint symposium on 15th May.

Hosted by ERA4TB and UNITE4TB partner, Uppsala University, these three days of activities saw around 200 people join together to discuss the key opportunities and challenges facing TB drug development today and hear about the exciting progress in both projects.

ERA4TB Consortium Meeting

The ERA4TB annual consortium meeting once again provided an invaluable opportunity for the 30+ project partners to join together in person. The consortium heard about the exciting work being undertaken across the In Vitro, In Vivo, pre-clinical and first-trial in human work packages, as well as updates on imaging and modelling techniques, data and project management and communications and engagement.

An update on the current ‘assets’ within the project was given, with the aim of having several Phase 2 ready candidates by the end of the project.

ERA4TB-UNITE4TB joint symposium

The inaugural joint symposium saw nearly 200 members of the two Innovative Medicines Initiative funded projects come together, to hear about each other’s work, discuss possible synergies and have networking opportunities. The day covered the work being done on innovative techniques in pre-clinical research, biomarkers, use of computer modelling to inform clinical trials, developing a TB core outcome set, and the strategy for new TB treatment combinations.

A final session saw both ERA4TB’s and UNITE4TB’s Scientific Advisory Board members come together for a lively debate with the audience over the future of TB Treatments.

Ulrika Simonsson, Professor at Uppsala University, said:

‘It was such a pleasure to host both the ERA4TB consortium meeting and the first ERA4TB-UNITE4TB joint symposium at Uppsala University. I think they were both great meetings.

A lot of discussions and interactions in a positive atmosphere. Great to see that the consortia is being productive and making a difference to TB drug development.’

 

Watch this short video to experience some of the moments from the day:

Video credit: UNITE4TB