Janssen's response to open letter calling on the company to reduce the price of bedaquiline
Several organizations and individuals working on TB appealed to Janssen to lower bedaquiline's price for all non-high-income countries.
On September 10, 2014 several organizations and individuals
working on TB sent an
open letter
to Janssen appealing to the company to lower bedaquiline's price
for all non-high-income countries.
Bedaquiline
(Sirturo) is the first new TB drug from a new drug class to
receive approval in over 40 years and is critically important
for people with drug-resistant TB with limited treatment
options.
Yet bedaquiline is not accessible to the
patients and TB programs who need it. Once registration barriers
are overcome, Janssen's prohibitive pricing and patenting of the
drug will become the major barrier to access.
In
their response, Janssen indicates that they are open to
discussions about access and financing models.
Janssen
welcomes the opportunity to meet with the signatories of the
open letter and other stakeholders on September 24, 2014 to
determine solutions to improve the affordability of
bedaquiline.
You can download Janssen's response to the open letter from
here.
