Bedaquiline: A Novel Antitubercular Agent for the Treatment of Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis.

The developing countries are having an abruptly growing number of drug resistant tuberculosis cases. Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is a type of TB in which the strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is resistant to at least Isoniazid and Rifampicin, the two most effective of the four first-line TB drugs (the other two drugs being Ethambutol and Pyrazinamide). The management of such cases is complex and requires a treatment for 24-27 months. The current guidelines available for the management of this type of TB are largely based on the second line TB drugs which are relatively costly, less efficacious and are associated with greater side-effects. The introduction of newer drugs to cater to the high mortality and early sputum culture conversion in the MDR-TB cases is an absolute essential. In the present article, the authors discuss about the introduction of a newer drug named Bedaquiline for the control of MDR-TB.