What are the challenges in commercial non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) drug discovery and how should we move forward?

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Despite the great clinical need, the development of drugs for treating non-tuberculous mycobacteria lung disease (NTM-LD), partly from the scientific difficulty, but also because the eventual size and types of markets for commercially-developed drugs has been unclear.Areas Covered: Here, key questions regarding the markets for commercial NTM-LD drugs are discussed, together with potential solutions for resolving these questions.Expert Opinion: Many of these questions will become better resoled over time, but uncertainties will remain around likely competition and whether approval and reimbursement will be achieved for all NTM-LD or smaller subsections of the market. Additionally, both ‘push’ and ‘pull’ incentives should be considered by policymakers to ensure the NTM-LD market is successfully addressed.

KEYWORDS:

• Drug development
• non-tuberculous mycobacteria
• market size
• competition

Declaration of interest

G Timmins is the CSO and Founder of SpinCeutica, a company who are involved in non-tuberculous mycobacteria-targeted (NTM) drug discovery. He also owns stock in this company. He is also an occasional scientific advisor for Avisa Pharma Inc. He has no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Reviewer Disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

G Timmins is supported by a grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (AI129005).