Low monetary return on TB drug R&D has prevented even the biggest of pharmaceutical and biotech companies from venturing in to the search for new TB drugs. However, several organizations have been brave enough to trod the less chosen path.

These organizations comprise of research institutes, which are either funded by the government of a particular country or are financially supported by multinational drug companies, and private firms. These organizations, as described below, act as crucible of innovation, thus adding momentum to the global anti-TB battle.

Research Institutes

National Tuberculosis Institute, Bangalore, India, established in 1959, has been instrumental in formulating India's TB Control Program and training key personnel to run the program through District TB Centers. This program has also been adopted by several other countries.

Institut Pasteur Korea (IPK), South Korea, a nonprofit organization, accelerates drug discovery and enables the quantification of disease in real time by using information technology for the benefit of medical research. IPK's proprietary PhenomicScreen technological platform, its expertise in high throughput and high content visual screening accelerate the drug discovery process.