E-DRUG: Call to action: Accelerate access to DR-TB drugs
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Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), RESULTS UK, SWIFT, 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.
** SIGN ON LETTER ** to global actors and drug companies
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.
Consider:
- 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 yet, at the end of 2014, fewer 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.
Please provide organizational sign-ons to our letter by 6 March at
http://www.msfaccess.org/52pickup
Many thanks
Joanna Keenan
Press Officer
Médecins Sans Frontières - Access Campaign
P: +41 22 849 87 45
M: +41 79 203 13 02
E: joanna.keenan[at]geneva.msf.org