Call to Action to accelerate access to DR-TB drugs: 2016 update

DR-TB STAT
June 22, 2016, 11:05 a.m.
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The update informs about the general progress in the introduction of bedaquiline and delamanid in TB programs worldwide and reports on the requests made in the Call to Action issued in March 2015.

In March 2015, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), ACTION Global Health Advocacy Partnership, SWIFT Response Project, Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), Treatment Action Group (TAG), the Global TB Community Asvisory Board (TB CAB) and 82 other humanitarian, public health, civil society and medical organizations issued a Call to Action for the global TB community in order to urgently improve access to the two new drugs used to treat multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), bedaquiline and delamanid.

One primary request in the Call to Action was the formation of a consortium to monitor and support the progress of new drug introduction. In response, the World Health Organization put the proposal on the agenda for the Drug-resistant TB Initiative (GDI) meeting in April 2015, which was the catalyst to set up the DR-TB Scale-Up Treatment Action Team (DR-TB STAT) consisting of key global TB organizations, including civil society representatives. DR-TB STAT is now a task force within GDI.

The purpose of the update, over a year after the Call to Action, is to inform the concerned community about general progress in the introduction of these two new medications in TB programs worldwide, and to report specifically on the requests made in the original Call to Action.

To download the 2016 update of the Call to Action, click here.