India: Mumbai TB Symposium Focuses on Advancing TB Treatment and Collaboration

10 June 2024, Mumbai: A pivotal symposium organised today by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)/Doctors Without Borders brought together a diverse coalition of experts and stakeholders to forge actionable strategies against Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (DRTB). This crucial gathering aimed to highlight the key successes and challenges in the battle against TB, with an emphasis on enhancing the … Read more

MSF: TB test price reduction by Cepheid and Danaher is an important step in the right direction

Cepheid and its parent company Danaher announced today that they are reducing the price of the Xpert MTB/RIF test for TB by 20 percent in high-TB-burden countries from US$9.98 to $7.97 per test.  This reduction is a significant step, considering the corporations have refused to reduce the price of this test for over ten years. While … Read more

Ahead of UN TB High-Level Meeting, US corporations J&J and Cepheid must pledge access to lifesaving TB medicines and tests for everyone in need

TB is curable but remains the world’s leading infectious disease killer 12 September 2023, Geneva/New York – Next week, world leaders meet for the second-ever global tuberculosis (TB) High-Level Meeting at the United Nations (UN) in New York, to endorse ambitious commitments to ramp up TB testing, treatment and prevention in light of innovative medical … Read more

MSF applauds Indian Patent Office’s rejection of Johnson & Johnson’s attempt to extend monopoly on lifesaving TB drug

Mumbai, 23 March 2023 – Today, the 2019 patent challenge by two tuberculosis (TB) survivors, Nandita Venkatesan and Phumeza Tisile, was successful: the Indian Patent Office rejected the US pharmaceutical corporation Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) attempt to extend its monopoly in India on the TB drug bedaquiline beyond the primary patent’s expiry this July. Médecins … Read more

Between life and living: Patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) share stories of strength, support and suffering

India has the highest burden of both tuberculosis (TB) and multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) based on estimates in the WHO Global TB Report 2022. The country accounts for 28 percent of the global TB burden.   In its clinic in Mumbai, MSF provides free, comprehensive diagnostics and treatment services to people with severe forms of drug-resistant … Read more

endTB trial: First patient enrolls for clinical trials of novel, short and all-oral regimens for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in India

Pune, India: Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in collaboration with Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR)- National AIDS Research Institute (NARI) and Department of Health Service, Government of Maharashtra is initiating two major clinical trials that aim at generating clinical evidence on the safety and efficacy of novel, short and all-oral regimens for the most difficult-to-treat … 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

India: Renewed hope with new drugs

Two new drugs, bedaquiline and delamanid, are proving to be the very last lifeline for tuberculosis (TB) patients with the most extreme forms of drug resistance. While a few patients benefit from these new drugs in India, many die before being able to access them as they are not widely available. Nischaya, eighteen years old, receives the … Read more