MSF calls for equitable access to TB drugs and diagnostics in first-ever plenary session on access at the TB Union Conference  

Bali/Geneva, 13 November 2024 – At the premier global conference on tuberculosis (TB), the annual Union World Conference on Lung Health, taking place in Bali, Indonesia, Christophe Perrin, TB Advocacy Pharmacist at MSF’s Access Campaign, was invited to present on Access to Medicines and Diagnostics during a plenary session. This is the first ever time a plenary session at the ‘Union Conference’ was devoted to access to medical tools. ​ 

Christophe Perrin, TB Advocacy Pharmacist, MSF Access Campaign: 

“This first-ever session on access to medical tools at the plenary of the TB Union Conference is a landmark moment for the TB community as a whole. Acknowledging the persistent struggle for people to access TB tests and drugs at the premier platform for TB science and care is a testament to the fact that scientists and leaders in the fight against this deadly disease are finally recognising the essential role that empowered communities and civil society play in ensuring the lifesaving tools that emerge from new science and research are finally accessible for the people who need them most. ​ 

For two and a half decades, MSF has been advocating for access to medicines on behalf of affected people and communities. It was in 1999 at the World Trade Organization Seattle Conference that we first raised the alarm about the high price of medicines for HIV and other diseases affecting resource-limited settings, as we could no longer stand by and watch our patients die because they couldn’t afford existing medicines that could have saved their lives. Unfortunately, we have continued to witness history repeating itself, including with TB, where people can’t get access to treatment because of high prices and unjustified patents that expand monopolies. ​ ​ 

TB champions, associations and civil society have been playing a pivotal role in pushing back against patent monopolies and high prices that, for more than a decade, have kept newer and safer TB drugs out of the hands of people who need them to stay alive. Thanks to the persistent pressure by these groups, the price of a drug-resistant TB treatment course has dramatically come down, from US$6,000 for a treatment course for one person to close to $400* today. The price of the critical GeneXpert TB test has also finally come down by 20% as a result of a long advocacy campaign by the TB community. However, prices for XDR-TB tests and critical drugs like delamanid remain exorbitant and the TB community continues to advocate relentlessly for price reductions. ​ ​ ​ 

For future medical tools, we want to see countries and donors, with support from global health actors, finally start attaching access requirements to public funding that is given for research and development: only when access strings are attached to R&D funding can there be any guarantee that the resulting tests and treatments are actually affordable and available for people who need them, no matter where they live. ​ 

Access matters as much as scientific breakthroughs, political commitments, and the funding required to fight the world’s deadliest infection. What good is a lifesaving treatment if the people who need it can’t afford it? Put simply, lifesaving medical tools should never be a luxury.” 

*WHO recommended six-month all-oral DR-TB treatment BPaLM (including bedaquiline, pretomanid,linezolid and moxifloxacin) is now priced at $416 per treatment course. ​  

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Shailly Gupta

+41-79 203 13 02 (also on WApp)