Breakthrough in Tuberculosis Treatment: Major Price Cuts for Life-Saving Drugs

In the fight against drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB), affordability of treatments has historically been cited as a challenge to widespread availability of treatment. But thanks to a groundbreaking price reduction announced by the Stop TB Partnership’s Global Drug Facility (GDF), and led by TB Alliance and Lupin Limited, the cost of a key #6MonthsMax treatment just got significantly lower.

Pretomanid, a critical component of the BPaL and BPaLM regimens to treat DR-TB, has seen another price drop, this one by 25%, bringing the cost down from $224 to $169 per treatment course. The means the price of pretomanid is now less than a dollar per day.

 With additional recent price reductions for bedaquiline (B), linezolid (L), and moxifloxacin (M), other components of the World Health Organization-recommended BPaLM regimen, the cumulative cost of a 6-month BPaLM treatment now stands at $310, which translates to less than $2 per day.

The GDF expects this reduction to save GDF $3 million annually and enhance the regimen’s accessibility in high-burden TB countries. Moreover, the lower cost strengthens negotiation power for National TB Programs, potentially unlocking an additional $5 million in savings each year.

The price reductions in pretomanid and the other components of BPaL/M have been made possible through a collective effort from product developers, medicine suppliers, governments, donors, and TB advocates. Fast Track the Cure commends all those involved in these price reductions. Lower drug prices mean fewer barriers to widely adopting and implementing #6MonthsMax cures, which means more lives saved and a stronger global DR-TB response.

For further details, check out the full announcements from the Stop TB Partnership and TB Alliance.