In September of 1994, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) funded a TB drug acquisition and screening program, the TAACF. This program was established in order to screen a diversity of compounds in high quality in vitro and in vivo assays. These services are provided at no cost to the compound supplier, and commercialization rights are retained by the supplier. Through this program, NIAID is encouraging and supporting both academic researchers and pharmaceutical companies to reenter the area of TB drug development.
The NIAID implemented a program that offers a variety of resources to facilitate the development, testing, and commercialization of new TB drugs.
The NIAID TB program consists of three closely interwoven testing components:
- Southern Research Institute - Candidate compound identification and acquisition services
- Hansen’s Disease Center - in vitro screening services
- Colorado State University - in vivo screening services
Southern Research Institute coordinates these three testing elements. A fourth element of the NIAID program, led by Research Triangle Institute, is technology transfer support to enhance opportunities for advancement of candidate anti-TB drugs to market.
What the TAACF Does...
The TAACF integrates the testing components into a unified program to facilitate the search for anti-mycobacterial drugs. The TAACF is a free, full-service anti-tuberculosis testing service with one simple specialty: making anti-TB testing available to companies and investigators.
All services are provided confidentially and at no cost to the Supplier.
The TAACF provides structure-based testing of new compounds, screening for virulent M. tuberculosis in a liquid culture growth inhibition assay, mouse models for evaluating promising drug candidates, and assistance to sponsors for candidate antibiotics.
Compounds are screened on a first come-first served basis. To learn more about the assays used to screen the candidate compounds click here.
For information about submitting compounds to the TAACF go to the Submission Information page.
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