Call to action: Accelerate access to DR-TB drugs

А letter from 89 organizations urges action to accelerate access to new and repurposed drugs to treat drug-resistant tuberculosis.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), ACTION Global Health Advocacy Partnership, SWIFT Response Project, Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), Treatment Action Group (TAG) and 84 other organizations 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 letter, sent on March 11, 2015, asks that actors respond by 24 March 2015 (World TB Day) to specific requests, including establishing a consortium to speed up access and ensuring 500 patients are started on routine regimens which include bedaquiline by July 2015, and 500 patients started on routine regimens which include delamanid by January 2016.

To read the letter, click here.

Source: Médecins Sans Frontières