MSF calls again on J&J to withdraw or abandon extended patents on lifesaving TB drug as main patent expires in India today, opening door to more affordable generics

MSF calls again on J&J to withdraw or abandon extended patents on lifesaving TB drug as main patent expires in India today, opening door to more affordable generics. Recent deal offering controlled generics access in limited countries does not go far enough.   Delhi/Cape Town/Geneva, 18 July, 2023 – As Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) 20-year … Read more

TB medicine deal offers short-term solution, but J&J needs to do more for all affected countries

Christophe Perrin, TB advocacy pharmacist, MSF Access Campaign  “Today’s announcement by the Stop TB Partnership/Global Drug Facility about a deal with pharmaceutical corporation Johnson & Johnson (J&J), for access to affordable generic versions of the lifesaving tuberculosis (TB) drug bedaquiline, offers a short-term solution for low- and middle-income countries — but the deal remains just a … Read more

Tuberculosis: Policies should ‘help facilitate access to life saving treatment not create barriers.’

Stobdan Kalon is a medical doctor working with Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (MSF). His experience spans from managing infectious diseases, interventions in Drug Resistant-Tuberculosis (DR-TB), hepatitis and HIV. As a doctor, I am elated that the World Health Organization (WHO) has updated their DR-TB treatment guidelines, which approves concomitant use of Bedaquiline and Delamanid … Read more

Access to medicines: As J&J release earnings, MSF protests price of lifesaving TB drug

As J&J release earnings, MSF protests price of lifesaving TB drug in front of New York Stock Exchange New York, 22 January 2020—Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) protested in front of the New York Stock Exchange in New York today, demanding the pharmaceutical corporation Johnson & Johnson (J&J) make the tuberculosis (TB) drug bedaquiline available for … Read more

MSF and TB activists disrupt opening of TB conference to protest drug corporations keeping life-saving medicines from people

Newer medicines for DR-TB are desperately needed, but barriers to access, including high prices, keep them out of reach for most people around the world. Hyderabad, 30 October – Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) joined tuberculosis (TB) activists to disrupt the opening ceremony of the 50th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Hyderabad today, … Read more

Access to medicines: MSF demands Johnson & Johnson reduce price of lifesaving TB drug

GENEVA – Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has launched a global campaign calling on pharmaceutical corporation Johnson & Johnson (J&J) to lower the price of its anti-tuberculosis medicine bedaquiline to no more than US$1 per day for people everywhere who need it, in order to allow scale-up of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) treatment and reduce deaths.   … Read more

Tuberculosis: TB activists challenge Johnson & Johnson patent application on bedaquiline in India

Mumbai/Cape Town – Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is supporting a patent challenge filed in India this week by two tuberculosis survivors, to prevent pharmaceutical corporation Johnson & Johnson (J&J) from extending its monopoly on the tuberculosis drug bedaquiline. Nandita Venkatesan from Mumbai, India and Phumeza Tisile from Khayelitsha, South Africa, who filed the patent … Read more

Renewed hope- Stories of four patients fighting drug-resistant-TB in Mumbai

Name : Designation : Interviews conducted & written by DVL Padma Priya for MSF   For World TB Day 2018, we celebrate the courage and endurance of four MSF patients who are currently undergoing treatment for drug-resistant TB (DR-TB).  Pooja, Rekha, Vikas and Sita are receiving care in MSF’s DR-TB programme in Mumbai, where a … Read more

Mumbai: A new life with new tuberculosis drugs

Increasingly drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis (TB) are on the rise in India, particularly in hotspots such as Mumbai. Two new TB drugs, bedaquiline and delaminid, show promising results and offer renewed hope to patients whose TB strains are resistant to nearly all drugs available. But access to these new life-saving drugs in India remains greatly … Read more