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UNITE4TB Annual Meeting 2025: Transforming TB Care Together
From 6 to 8 May 2025, the UNITE4TB Consortium convened in London for its Annual Meeting. Held across three venues — the Wellcome Collection, the Royal College of Physicians, and UCL’s MRC Clinical Trials Unit, the program spanned three focused days: Consortium Day, Scientific Day, and a Closed Investigator Meeting. The gathering celebrated recent progress, strengthened collaboration, and set the direction for the next phase of the project.
Day 1: Consortium Day
The UNITE4TB Annual Meeting 2025 began on 6 May at the Wellcome Collection — a venue rich in scientific history, founded by Henry Wellcome, one of the early pioneers of GSK, a key partner in the UNITE4TB Consortium.
Project leads Derek Sloan (Radboudumc) and David Barros (GSK) opened the meeting, welcoming all participants. In his opening remarks, Derek reflected on the consortium’s progress and future direction:
"Thank you all for your continued dedication and hard work. We are very pleased with the progress made so far, and it is encouraging to see the first data coming out. Still, much critical work is yet to come."
The morning featured updates from all 12 work packages as well as a plenary discussion on the operational challenges of the PARADIGM4TB clinical trial, one of three currently running trials under the UNITE4TB clinical trial program.
Derek Sloan, project lead of the UNITE4TB ConsortiumBy deploying our collective talent and drawing on the strength of our diverse scientific, ethical, and community perspectives, we can tackle the challenges ahead.
UNITE4TB Advisory Bodies
Scientific Advisory Board members Dr. Razia Fatima (National TB Control Program, Pakistan) and Dr. Bouke de Jong (Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp) commended the consortium’s progress. Drawing on UNTIE4TB’s race car concept, they noted that the project has really gained momentum over the last year and is now at “cruising speed”.
Members of the Community Advisory Group (CAG), Blessina Kumar, Paul Sommerfeld and Stephen Dresser presented recent CAG activities and efforts to amplify the voices of people affected by TB. Blessina added:
Blessina Kumar (Community Advisory Group Member)We all want the same thing— to cure TB. But what works in one setting, may not necessarily work everywhere. That is why we have to move together, faster and in a way that ensures the dignity of the people living with TB.
Day 2: Scientific Day
Held at the Royal College of Physicians, the Scientific Day showcased UNITE4TB’s contributions, from academic breakthroughs to shaping future TB care through collaboration with regulators and communities.
Jodie Schildkraut (Radboudumc) welcomed participants and principal investigators from the project’s global clinical trial sites. Marc Lipman (UCL) opened the day with a clear message:
“The global community is looking at you and wants to know what you are achieving.”
During the Academic Discoveries sessions, several achievements and insights emerged. Simphiwe Simelane (TASK) presented a comprehensive analysis of 19 Early Bactericidal Activity trials. Daniel Garger (Helmholtz Zentrum München) followed with a proof-of-concept model that uses data from the TB-PACTS platform to predict TB treatment outcomes and chances of disease relapse. Michael Hoelscher (LMU) presented a first look at data of the DECISION trial. While the results look promising, Michael emphasized the preliminary status and the need for further in-depth analysis.
Insights on TB Drug Pipeline
Representatives from Otsuka, LMU, TB Alliance and GSK outlined the clinical progress and strategic directions for TB regimen development. The session not only reflected the strength of UNITE4TB in bringing together complementary assets, but also the importance of maintaining momentum in further development. As David Barros from GSK stated:
“It would be a missed opportunity to not continue this endeavour.”
The morning closed with a dynamic panel discussion on the future of TB care, featuring Fuad Mirzayev (WHO), Nick Paton (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Health) and Nyanda Ntinginya (NIMR Tanzania).
Under-studied Populations in TB Drug Development
Keynote speaker Dianna Gibb (UCL) stressed the urgent need for including under-studied populations such as pregnant women, older adults, HIV-infected individuals, and children in TB drug development. Diana focused on the long-standing exclusion of children from clinical trials, noting:
Diana Gibb (UCL), in her keynote address on Under-studied Populations in TB Drug DevelopmentThere should be more awareness that children should be included in TB research. Children were thought to be too fragile for research, but they actually deserve to be involved in TB research. Any delays in drug development are unacceptable.
Diana’s call for greater inclusion set the tone for the panel discussion that followed, where Blessina Kumar (CAG member), Elin Svennson (Uppsala University), Ramesh Dass (Otsuka), Patrick Philips (UCL) and Hanif Esmail (UCL) explored the ethical and practical implications of excluding under-studied populations from research.
Global TB Research Ecosystem
Day 2 closed with a session on the Global TB Research Ecosystem, reinforcing UNITE4TB as a scientific and clinical engine, but also as a driving force in shaping a new collaborative paradigm for global TB research.
Rada Savic (University of California, San Francisco) presented the work of the Preclinical Design and Clinical Translation of TB Regimens (PReDicTR) Consortium, which focuses on translating preclinical findings into human predictions, using advanced modeling and pharmacometrics, thereby aiming to improve TB clinical trial designs.
Christian Lienhardt presented the Knowledge Integration for Tuberculosis Therapeutics (KITT) project and reminded the UNITE4TB partners that as TB treatment development becomes more complex, collaborative mechanisms like KITT are essential for trust. His closing message evoked the spirit of disease eradication campaigns:
“Coalitions are powerful – the secret to success is trust and shared purpose.”
Closing the day, UNITE4TB Consortium coordinator Derek Sloan shortly reflected on the past days saying: “There has been so much progress to share that it has been hard to fit it all into just a few days.”
Looking Ahead
The 2025 UNITE4TB Annual Consortium Meeting underscored the project’s growing impact, not only as a scientific powerhouse, but as a catalyst for inclusive, collaborative TB research. As the consortium enters its next phase, the commitment to shared purpose, community inclusion, and scientific excellence remains stronger than ever.
We thank GSK for hosting the opening day at the Wellcome Collection, as well as the support teams at the Royal College of Physicians and UCL’s MRC Clinical Trials Unit.