E-DRUG to E-LEK: MSF: Fewer than 5% people in need treated with new TB
drugs, nearly 4 years later
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Dear all
Sharing MSF's press release for World TB Day -
Fewer than 5% of people in need are treated with new TB drugs, nearly four
years after their approval
https://msfaccess.org/about-us/media-room/press-releases/
fewer-5-people-need-are-treated-new-tb-drugs-nearly-four-years
And here's a short video made for social media: https://twitter.com/MSF_
access/status/845016092837908480
feel free to retweet and follow @MSF_Access to see more content.
Fewer than 5% of people in need are treated with new TB drugs, nearly four
years after their approval
Companies and countries must take urgent action to increase access to these
life-saving treatments
Geneva, 23 March, 2017 - Only 4,800 people with drug-resistant
tuberculosis (DR-TB) in 2016 were treated with two newer and much more
effective medicines, even though these have now been on the market for up
to four years, M?decins Sans Fronti?res (MSF) deplored today.
Outside of a small number of clinical trials and compassionate use
programs, just 469 people received delamanid in 2016, while just over 4,300
received bedaquiline. This means that fewer than five percent of people who
need these drugs have received them. All other people receiving DR-TB
treatment continue instead to be treated with older, more toxic regimens
that cure only 50% of people treated, and cause severe side-effects,
ranging from deafness to psychosis.
Access to bedaquiline and delamanind must be urgently increased by the
pharmaceutical corporations that produce them, and by governments, in order
to save the lives of people with DR-TB.
In 2015, the World Health Organization estimated that more than half a
million people were infected with DR-TB, with just one quarter of those
being diagnosed and receiving treatment.
"It's downright disheartening that with hundreds of thousands of people
living with deadly drug-resistant tuberculosis, only 4,800 people last year
received the two new drugs that could dramatically increase the number of
lives saved," said Dr Isaac Chikwanha, TB Advisor for MSF's Access Campaign.
Tuberculosis is one of the world's biggest infectious disease killers, with
1.8 million people dying from the disease each year. Two promising new
drugs, delamanid and bedaquiline, were brought to market three and just
over four years ago, respectively, with great hopes to form the backbone of
new and dramatically-improved treatment for DR-TB. Current standard
treatment for DR-TB involves people taking nearly 15,000 pills over two
years, causing severe and debilitating side effects, and curing just one in
two people.
"When we have access to the new drugs like bedaquiline and delamanid,
including in combination, we give people a real chance at surviving this
deadly disease," said Dr. Jennifer Hughes, MSF TB Doctor in Khayelitsha
South Africa. "For the 18 patients in our project we've initiated on a
combination of bedaquiline and delamanid, nearly 90 percent had a negative
culture following six months of treatment, which is an early sign that the
treatment will ultimately be successful."
"Efforts to increase access to bedaquiline and delamanid have moved at a
glacial pace- only 1% of those who could benefit from delamanid are
receiving it in South Africa today, mostly in the small confines of one
site," Dr Hughes added. "How much longer will people elsewhere have to
wait?"
Sinethemba takes her daily regimen for XDR-TB at 10am each day. She also
takes two additional delamanid tablets at night. Her grandmother's
determination and love, combined with receiving a six-month trial of one
the newest DR-TB drugs on the market likely saved her life. South Africa
2016 © Sydelle Willow Smith
While bedaquiline and delamanid have been approved by the World Health
Organization to be added to treatment regimens for people with severe forms
of DR-TB, MSF and others have fought to gain access to these new drugs.
Access to bedaquiline and delamanid - produced by pharmaceutical
corporations Janssen/Johnson&Johnson and Otsuka, respectively - is
currently limited for several reasons, including the fact that the
corporations have not registered the drugs in many high-burden TB countries.
"Our first major problem is that pharmaceutical corporations are not even
registering important new drugs in some of the countries hardest hit by TB;
the next major problem is their high price," said Dr Chikwanha. "Both
Janssen and Otsuka - but especially Otsuka, for delamanid - must urgently
speed up registration of their drugs in high-TB-burden countries, and price
these drugs affordably."
Countries also need to facilitate greater access to the new drugs by
allowing them be imported before their registration is complete.
"Governments must do everything they can to help save their people's
lives," said Dr Chikwanha. "Countries have a responsibility to treat DR-TB
with the recommended tools at their disposal, including bedaquiline and
delamanid, especially for people who have run out of treatment options."
"I was very lucky, because I was one of the first people in South Africa to
get delamanid," said 17-year-old Sinethemba Kuse, a resident of Khayelitsha
near Cape Town. "I've been on treatment for 14 months now, and I'm doing
well with almost no side-effects. I think that a lot of people should be
given this treatment, because it works. A lot of people who don't have the
chance to take these tablets are suffering - a lot of them die - so I
suggest that governments should buy these tablets so that people can have a
second chance to live."
Michelle French
Sr. Manager, Communications, MSF Access Campaign
Doctors Without Borders\M?decins Sans Fronti?res (MSF)
www.msfaccess.org
Michelle French <Michelle.French@newyork.msf.org>