LILLY

Eli Lilly and Company is leading the partnership.

SEATTLE - A newly formed non-profit organization plans to make Seattle a hub for tuberculosis research.

Indiana-based pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly is partnering with public and private agencies to study new tuberculosis drugs in Puget Sound.

The partnership was announced at the third annual Pacific Health Summit in Seattle on Wednesday.

"It is a very ambitious undertaking – but with a very, very important cause toward global health," Lauren Cislak, a spokesperson for Lilly, told KING5.com.

The new nonprofit plans to staff up to 25 drug researchers who will be housed in the Infectious Disease Research Institute in downtown Seattle.

They say the need for new tuberculosis drugs was highlighted recently when an American man with a rare type of tuberculosis was placed in quarantine after potentially exposing passengers on his airline.

The nonprofit – called Lilly Not-for-Profit partnership for TB Early Phase Drug Discoveries - will seek grants and contracts for additional funding, with the goal of becoming self-sustaining. Lilly is committing $15 million to jump-start the project over the next five years.

In May, King County announced that tuberculosis cases had doubled since last year.

Lilly's announcement drew praise from government officials throughout the region, including Governor Christine Gregoire, who released a statement:

"I am pleased that this work will stay in Washington. Washington continues to lead the way in research on cures for some of the world's most dreaded diseases."

Seattle organizations that are involved in the partnership include the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, The University of Washington Dept. of Global Health and downtown Seattle's Infectious Disease Research Institute. Other partners include the National Institute of Health and India-based Jubilant Biosys.

According to Eli Lilly and Company, tuberculosis kills someone every 20 seconds. Today's TB drugs are more than 40 years old and must be taken over a long period of time – sometimes up to two years. Patients who don't adhere to the time commitment breed drug resistance, making the pandemic more deadly.