Recent study revealed that combination of two drugs can help in fighting extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB).

Researchers said that AstraZeneca's (AZN. L) MERREM I. V., also called meropenem, used together with clavulanate, sold by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK. L) in combination with amoxicillin as the drug Augmentin, killed laboratory-grown strains of TB.

Study senior author John S. Blanchard, a professor of biochemistry at Einstein said: "If proven in human subjects, the ability to simplify treatment to just two drugs that work against drug-susceptible [TB], multi-drug-resistant [TB] and XDR-TB could help patients better adhere to therapy."

He added: "There have been no drugs introduced in the chemotherapy of TB in 40 years. So this would be the first new class of compounds that could potentially be approved for the treatment of TB in the last 40 years. So that's exciting."

Research team is planning to conduct clinical trial involving100 XDR-TB patients in South Korea this year followed by another clinical trial is planned in South Africa. The problem of XDR-TB is increasing in developing countries.