Despite effective antituberculous chemotherapy, there is significant morbidity following completed treatment regimens including lasting impact on lung function, which is linked with all-cause mortality.This has led to interest in the use of adjunctive host-directed therapies.In an open-label, phase 2, randomised control trial, Wallis et al (Lancet 2021:doi10.1016/S2213-2600(20)30448-3)investigated the safety and preliminary efficacy of four adjunctive hostdirected therapies for pulmonary tuberculosis.A total of 200 patients across three sites in South Africa with rifampicin-susceptible Mycobacterium tuberculosis were randomly assigned (1:1:1:1:1) to receive either CC-11050, everolimus, auranofin, ergocalciferol in addition to standard anti-tuberculosis therapy or standard therapy alone for 180 days.Three of 11 treatment-emergent serious adverse events were attributable to host-directed treatment: lifethreatening thrombocytopaenia in an auranofin recipient which resolved after auranofin discontinuation, intra-abdominal sepsis resulting in death in another auranofin recipient and tuberculosis spondylitis in an ergocalciferol recipient.The CC-11050 and everolimus groups did not contain any serious adverse events that could be attributed to treatment.Furthermore, relative to the control group, the CC-11050 and everolimus groups showed a greater improvement in mean forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV 1 ) at day 180 (6.30%, 95% CI 0.06% to 12.54%; p=0.048; and 6.56%, 95% CI 0.18% to 12.95%; p=0.044, respectively).No treatments showed a significant difference in forced vital capacity (FVC) or on measures of sputum culture status during the study.The authors conclude that encouraging safety and efficacy findings for CC-11050 and everolimus, including their effect on FEV 1 recovery, warrants further study.