MSF and global TB activists take stage at annual TB conference

Activists present ‘Time for $5’ petition signed by over 206,000 people asking US corporations Cepheid and Danaher to drop test prices 

Bali/Geneva, 12 November 2024 – At the annual TB Union Conference, taking place in Bali, Indonesia, over 70 TB activists, including Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), took the stage during the opening ceremony to demand urgent action on tackling TB, and to again call on medical test maker Cepheid and its parent corporation Danaher to reduce the price of GeneXpert tests to US$5 in low- and middle-income countries. ​ 

While Danaher reduced the price of the standard TB test by 20% in September 2023 from $10 to $8, the test used to detect the most-deadly form of TB, XDR-TB (extensively drug-resistant TB), still remains very high at $15. Research commissioned by MSF in 2019 shows that GeneXpert cartridges could be produced and sold at a profit for less than $5 each. Cepheid and Danaher charge up to three times that for the XDR, HIV and hepatitis C tests amongst others. This despite the fact that Cepheid received $252 million in public funding to develop the GeneXpert test. Danaher and Cepheid also committed in September 2023 to an annual third-party assessment of their cost of production. But more than one year later, the corporations have still not shared any outcomes of such an audit. ​ 

Stijn Deborggraeve, Diagnostics Advisor at MSF’s Access Campaign 

“We’re here with the global TB community representing the voices of more than 200,000 people that have signed a petition demanding Cepheid and Danaher reduce the price of their medical tests in low- and middle-income countries, so that more lives can be saved.

“For the majority of their tests, Cepheid and Danaher continue to charge triple the $5 that they could be selling each test for and still make a profit -- this is unacceptable profiteering by the corporations, especially considering Cepheid and Danaher received $252 million in public funding to develop these tests. The corporations have also not kept their promise to share an annual audit of their prices that they committed to more than one year ago. Cepheid and Danaher, it’s really time to do the right thing – it's time for $5 for each GeneXpert test.” ​ 

For interviews, please contact Shailly Gupta, Shailly.GUPTA@geneva.msf.org, +41 79 203 13 02.