MUMBAI—Debshree Lokhande recalls trying everything to get rid of her cough, including syrups, lozenges, tablets, and Ayurvedic remedies. She had just moved to a new city and started her first job, fresh out of university. But within days, she said she was vomiting up “bowlfuls” of blood, her weight was falling sharply, and she was experiencing night sweats. A chest X-ray soon revealed that she had contracted tuberculosis. In normal circumstances, TB is a treatable disease—you just need the right doctor to administer the right combination of drugs. Back then, in 2011, Lokhande would have neither.

On 24 March 2016, on the occasion of World Tuberculosis Day, JP Nadda, India’s health minister at the time, announced the launch of bedaquiline in India. Bedaquiline is a new anti-tuberculosis drug that works on patients with drug-resistant TB, or DR-TB. The government announced that it would be giving the drug for free, under a national programme to eliminate TB.

The first-ever survey of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) has found that over a quarter of patients in India could be resistant to one or more drugs that can cure them. India is home to 2.8 million TB patients, the largest in the world.

The World Health Organisation (WHO), on Tuesday (March 6), invited pharmaceutical companies around the world to submit proposals to manufacture affordable versions of newer medicines for treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB).

Advanced patented medicines used to treat Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (DR-TB) are available to only about 1,000 patients out of the tens of thousands who need it, because the innovator-manufacturers are not ready to licence Indian drug-makers who can sell them at affordable prices.