Price of J&J’s TB drug to drop by more than half

In what will come as good news for tuberculosis (TB) patients, life-saving drug bedaquiline by US pharma company Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is now being offered at $400 per patient —over 50% cheaper than the earlier price of $900 negotiated with the government two years ago.

The reduction has been made possible on account of a change in WHO treatment guidelines, which included newer drugs including bedaquiline for drug-resistant TB on August 17, and another TB hotspot South Africa negotiating a lower price with J&J earlier in July. The price reduction has a major significance for India.

At present, India is one of the few countries where J&J offers the drug free of cost under a conditional access programme, which will end in March 2019. India has the highest burden of TB in the


world, accounting for more than a quarter of all cases worldwide, with nearly 1.5 lakh new cases of multi drug-resistant TB (MDRTB) a year. In 2016, there were an estimated 27.9 lakh TB cases in the country.

The regimen for drug-resistant TB by WHO recommends use of bedaquiline to be prioritised along with levofloxacin/ moxifloxacin and linezolid, replacing painful and toxic injections with severe side-effects like hearing loss in patients. Bedaquiline (trade name Sirturo), is perhaps the first drug in decades to have a potential to dramatically improve MDR-TB outcomes and reduce the number of people who die.

Last month, new data published in medical journal The Lancet showed bedaquiline-containing regimens were associated with a 41% increase in treatment success.