Case Western Reserve gets $20M federal grant to study tuberculosis drugs

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine has received a $19.7 million, 10-year federal contract to conduct clinical trials of new anti-tuberculosis drugs.

Dr. John L. Johnson, a Case professor and University Hospitals pulmonologist, will lead research teams in Uganda and the Philippines in the trials, which will test drugs that aim to simplify and shorten treatment regimens for tuberculosis, according to a statement from Case.

Case is one of 20 research sites worldwide to receive funding in the program from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“My lifetime research goal is to shorten the duration of anti-TB treatment required to treat most patients,” Johnson said in the statement.

Tuberculosis is an infectious bacterial disease that attacks a patient’s lungs and is spread through tiny droplets in the air. The disease kills up to 2 million people per year. Treatment typically requires six to nine months of antibiotics to kill the tuberculosis-causing bacteria.