Four-Month Moxifloxacin Regimens Less Effective for TB Treatment

The need to treat tuberculosis (TB) patients with 6-month drug regimens creates problems with adherence, adverse effects, and cost of care. The finding that moxifloxacin has antimycobacterial activity has raised the possibility that use of this agent might shorten treatment duration.

In a recent multinational, randomized, placebo-controlled, noninferiority trial involving 1931 adults with newly diagnosed, previously untreated, drug-sensitive TB, researchers compared the standard 6-month regimen (8 weeks of ethambutol/isoniazid/rifampin/pyrazinamide, followed by 18 weeks of isoniazid/rifampin) with two 4-month moxifloxacin-based regimens — one isoniazid-based (8 weeks of moxifloxacin/isoniazid/rifampin/pyrazinamide followed by 9 weeks of moxi…