TB drug deal offers short term solution, excludes high burden nations, says health advocacy group

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Medecins Sans Frontieres has said. “The deal remains just a stop-gap because bedaquiline will only be available to a limited number of countries that will be included in this agreement, procuring through the Global Drug Facility,” Christophe Perrin, TB advocacy pharmacist at Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) Access Campaign, said in a statement. According to MSF, nine countries in East Europe and Central Asia with high burden of drug-resistant TB are excluded from this deal. “While the included list of countries has yet to be made public, we have learned that the nine countries in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) region, which have some of the world’s highest burden of drug-resistant TB, are excluded from this deal,” Perrin said. “The full terms of the agreement still need to be made public,” he said. Perrin said Johnson & Johnson (J&J) should announce it will not enforce any secondary patents on bedaquiline in any country with a high burden of TB, and withdraw and abandon all pending secondary patent applications for this lifesaving drug.

'Stop TB' sets ball rolling for Bedaquiline's generic clone

GST exemption on medicines for rare diseases is unlikely to provide any relief to those in need: Health activists

Global spending on COVID-19 predicted to touch USD 500 billion by 2027: Dr Reddy's