Call to action: Accelerate access to DR-TB drugs

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), ACTION Global Health Advocacy Partnership, SWIFT Response Project, Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), Treatment Action Group (TAG) and others are calling on global health actors to step up and ensure new and repurposed DR-TB drugs reach people who are otherwise without treatment options.

New drugs to treat drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) have finally been developed; yet long after their approval, they are only available to a tiny fraction of those who urgently need them.

• Bedaquiline (BDQ) was conditionally approved by the US FDA 26 months ago and delamanid (DLM) was approved 10 months ago by the European Medicines Agency (EMA)

• WHO issued interim guidance recommending the programmatic use of bedaquiline 20 months ago and delamanid 4 months ago

• Janssen, the manufacturer of bedaquiline, announced a donation of bedaquiline through USAID, but nearly three months later, the details are unknown and there is no mechanism established for accessing this programme

At the end of 2014, little more than 600 people had received bedaquiline through expanded access programmes, and fewer than 10 had received delamanid outside clinical trial settings.

The sign on letter calls for accelerated action to ensure access to new and re-purposed DR-TB drugs, in particular for people experiencing treatment failure who are now left without any treatment options.

To read the letter, click here.

Please provide organizational sign-ons to the letter by 6 March.

Source: Médecins Sans Frontières