A tuberculosis research expert today said the world urgently needs a new drug for TB to provide relief to the ailing patients. In a statement issued on the eve of the World TB Day, Dr Balganesh, head of research at AstraZeneca, said, "With new societal changes, impacting the immune system, you are now seeing TB all over, not in a select population. We are also seeing a more diverse face of TB. That is the worrying part because you cannot change lifestyle so easily.' He said when his pharmaceutical company began working eight years ago on a new drug for TB, it began with the concept of developing a drug that could shorten the duration of treatment. "But now my vision of a new drug for TB is any therapy that works and brings benefits to the ailing TB patient, especially those infected with drug resistant TB. There is a shift in how Tuberculosis needs to be perceived in our socio-cultural environment.'