Treatment Action Group statement on bedaquiline unaffordability
Bedaquiline is a public good, and must be treated as such. Johnson & Johnson once again refused to meet evidence-based demands to price bedaquiline at $1/day.
New York, NY, July 6, 2020 – Treatment Action Group welcomes the Global Drug Facility / Stop TB Partnership’s negotiation of what amounts to a 32% savings on bedaquiline, the backbone of improved, all-oral regimens for treating drug-resistant TB. This volume-based negotiation provides further incentive for countries to rapidly make the switch to all-oral regimens for everyone with TB. All people with drug-resistant TB should have access to bedaquiline.
However, we note with disappointment that Johnson & Johnson (J&J) once again refused to meet evidence-based demands to price bedaquiline at $1/day. Further, J&J’s insistence on complicated pricing structures rather than a clear price reduction represents broader pharma intransigency on fair pricing. This is especially unconscionable in light of the fact that public investments in the development of bedaquiline sum to three to five times J&J’s expenditures on the drug.
“Bedaquiline is a public good, and must be treated as such. This means both securing fair pricing for bedaquiline at no more than $1/day, and in the meantime, urgently ensuring that bedaquiline is available in all countries as part of the preferred treatment for all people with drug-resistant TB,” said Lindsay McKenna, TB Project Co-Director.
Source: Treatment Action Group
