Price reduction of bedaquiline in the fight against TB

Price reduction of bedaquiline in the fight against TB

News

On Monday July 6, Johnson & Johnson announced a price reduction of the anti-tuberculosis medicine bedaquiline, for low- and middle-income countries. Thanks to the support of USAID and the Global Fund, this price reduction could be achieved. The price dropped from $400 to $340 for a six-month treatment regimen.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, TB-care and treatment options have been disrupted, making those suffering from TB extra vulnerable. With this price reduction, J&J hopes to increase accessibility of TB medicines, and to even further scale up the sales of bedaquiline. GDF also announced a “percentage of free goods” when certain volume thresholds are reached on an annual basis.

Bedaquiline (sold by J&J under the name Sirturo) will be available at the reduced price in at least 135 countries through Stop TB Partnership from the Global Drug Facility (GDF), who have been negotiating lower prices for treatments since their founding in 2001. GDF has become the largest worldwide provider of anti-tb medicines, as of May 2019 they have delivered anti-TB medication and diagnostics to over 142 countries, this included over 31 million treatment courses.

As IDA Foundation is the contracted procurement agent for GDF, and the supplier of first- and second-line anti-TB medicines, bedaquiline will be supplied via this mechanism at the reduced price and with the added discount when volume thresholds are reached.

For information on IDA's TB activities, please see our TB page https://www.idafoundation.org/en/tb

For more information on the Stop TB Partnership/GDF, please see http://www.stoptb.org/gdf/

Image retrieved from Stop TB Partnership/GDF.