Chemistry & Biology Interface, 2015, 5, 2, 84-127 REVIEW PAPER ISSN: 2249 –4820 CHEMISTRY & BIOLOGY INTERFACE An official Journal of ISCB, Journal homepage; www.cbijournal.com Drug development pipeline for the treatment of tuberculosis: Needs, challeng- es, success and opportunities for the future Namrata Anand, Kapil Upadhyaya, Rama Pati Tripathi Medicinal & Process Chemistry Division, CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute, Sector-10, Jankipuram Extension, Sitapur Road, Lucknow 226 031, India Corresponding author: Tel.: +91 0522 2612411; Fax: +91 522 2623405/ 2623938/ 2629504. E-mail:
[email protected] (Rama P. Tripathi), CDRI communication no. 8998 Received 13 April 2015; Accepted 28 April 2015 Abstract: Tuberculosis (TB), a leading cause of mortality and morbidity with more than one-third of the world population infected with latent TB andthe worldwide dissemination of multidrug (MDR) and ex- tensively drug resistant (XDR) Mycobacterium tuberculosis poses a serious threat to human health. due to inadequacy of long and cumbersome tuberculosis (TB) therapy. Several new molecules in clinical develop- ment encourage the scientific community to find new drug targets and new drug leads. In this perspective we present herein an overview of the new anti-TB agents with different molecular structures that are either being clinically used or in advanced stages clinical stages as well as of preclinical development. Here we have tried to provide snapshots of the efforts that are being made in the development of new drug molecules as lead anti-TB agents. Keywords: Tuberculosis (TB), Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Multidrug resistance (MDR), Extensively drug resistance (XDR), Directly Observed Treatment, Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC), Short- course (DOTs) Tuberculosis, commonly known as TB, is an M.