Civil society activists storm the stage at The Union Conference to demand affordability, transparency and accountability from the TB Alliance.
On 30 October 2019, civil society activists interrupted an event organized by the TB Alliance, Breaking Resistance, ahead of the 50th Union World Conference on Lung Health (The Union Conference) in Hyderabad, India to present their shared concerns and to demand transparency and accountability from the TB Alliance on a number of issues related to the new TB drug pretomanid, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in August 2019 in combination regimen for highly drug-resistant forms of TB.
The full statement delivered by the civil society can be accessed here.
A video of the action can be watched here.
On 25 October 2019, ahead of The Union Conference Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Treatment Action Group (TAG) and the Global TB Community Advisory Board (TB CAB) publicly shared an information note with a number of outstanding medical and research questions regarding pretomanid and the regimen BPaL (bedaquiline, pretomanid, linezolid).
The questions were sent directly to the TB Alliance, the non-profit developer of pretomanid, with the request that they a) respond to some of these questions during The Union Conference and in writing shortly thereafter, and b) support (if not directly carry out) the research needed to address gaps in the collective knowledge and experience with BPaL regimen and their drug pretomanid.
The information note can be accessed here.