Access to medicines: Governments must scale up better TB treatment as J&J drops crucial drug price

NEW YORK/GENEVA – The pharmaceutical corporation Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has announced a reduced price of US$1.50 [1] per day for the tuberculosis (TB) drug bedaquiline, which is an important step that should allow more people with drug-resistant forms of TB (DR-TB) to access this lifesaving drug. But the price should come down further and be … Read more

Mumbai: As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, “I hope my treatment can continue and I can be cured.”

“We spent hundreds of rupees in private health clinics to trying to cure my tuberculosis, but none of the medication worked. The treatment included daily painful injections with lots of side-effects like vomiting, fatigue, loss of appetite… and sometimes even suicide,” says Rabiya, a 27-year-old woman with extremely-drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB). She is now a patient … Read more

World Tuberculosis Day: “It’s time” to end the suffering and accelerate access to all oral regimen

Mumbai (India) – As of February 2020, the MSF private clinic in Govandi, Mumbai has initiated 188 drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) patients on treatment regimen which includes Bedaquiline and Delamanid.  Globally, an estimated 10 million people fell ill with tuberculosis (TB) in 2018 with India bearing the largest share of global TB burden (27%) much more than … Read more

COVID-19: Avoiding a ‘second tragedy’ for those with TB

As the world grapples with the coronavirus COVID-19 global pandemic, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is concerned for vulnerable groups worldwide. People with tuberculosis (TB) are among the groups that may be particularly affected. Special attention will be needed to safeguard the continuity of prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care for people with TB worldwide. TB is the world’s … 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

Chhattisgarh: Treating tuberculosis in the jungle

Since 2006, MSF is working in Sukma district of Southern Chhattisgarh in India, place of a longstanding low-intensity conflict between Indian security forces and Left-Wing Extremist group. The MSF team works to provide primary health care services to the population affected by the conflict. treating tb in the jungle by MSF on Exposure

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: Promising new tuberculosis drug pretomanid approved, but will it be affordable?

GENEVA/NEW YORK – Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) welcomes the approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of a combination regimen containing a new drug, pretomanid, for the treatment of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB). As the third new drug developed for TB in over half a century, and the first to be … Read more

Manipur: Providing patient-centered HIV, TB, and hepatitis care to patients

When Thongsei Lupho, 44, first started feeling unwell, he suspected he had contracted Tuberculosis. He visited MSF’s clinic in Moreh, on the Indo-Myanmar border, where he was diagnosed with HIV. Lupho had used drugs in the past to gain social acceptance in an area where tribal tensions had fostered a lack of trust amongst people. … Read more