An agreement announced today will help bring down the cost of two shorter treatment regimens for drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) patients, enabling greater access to the treatments.
The agreement, between TB Alliance, pharmaceutical company Viatris, and UK-based social enterprise MedAccess, will reduce the price of pretomanid, which is used in combination with bedaquiline, linezolid, and sometimes moxifloxacin as part of the BPal and BPaLM regimens, by 34%. The 6-month, all-oral regimens were recently recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for most patients with drug-resistant and multidrug-resistant (MDR)-TB.
Previous treatment regimens for DR-TB lasted as long as 20 months, involved injectable antibiotics with severe side effects, and were successful in roughly 50% of cases. In addition to being significantly shorter and easier on patients, the BPaL and BPaLM regimens have been effective at curing 89% to 91% of MDR-TB patients in clinical trials.
According to a press release from TB Alliance, which developed pretomanid, the agreement will enable 36,000 additional patients in more than 140 countries to be treated and will 31,000 adverse events. A volume guarantee to be provided by MedAccess t0 Viatris—one of the drug manufacturers that has received a non-exclusive license for pretomanid—will bring down the per-patient cost of the regimens to $500, and government and global procurers are expected to save more than $15 million.
"Coming on the heels of the WHO consolidated guidelines for DR-TB treatment, we hope this will be the game changer in ensuring access for people with DR-TB and reaching better treatment outcomes," Blessi Kumar, CEO of the Global Coalition of TB Advocates, said in the release.
According to the WHO's most recent global TB report, there were an estimated 450,000 cases of DR-TB in 2021.
"No medical innovation is complete until it’s able to reach every patient who needs it," said TB Alliance president and CEO Mel Spigelman, MD. "This new access partnership will accelerate the pace of progress and move us closer to a world in which no one dies of TB."