The latest round of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership or RCEP that concluded in Japan in early March did not yield any major decisions. The stalemate is largely due to the continued insistence of developed countries to include provisions that will adversely impact generic production of cheaper medicines. If such provisions are passed, India’s tuberculosis control programme might be among the worst affected.

Sexagenarian Shekhar Verma* lives in Faridabad, Haryana which is part of National Capital Region. A general store owner, he has developed resistance to many crucial antibiotics while being treated for tuberculosis for the last couple of years. The doctor at the National Institute of Tuberculosis & Respiratory Diseases told Verma that the only antibiotic that has high success for patients like him is Bedaquiline. But he cannot get Bedaquiline under the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme, government’s tuberculosis control programme.

Since 2010, evidence is emerging that doses to treat TB earlier thought to be optimal are less than what a child’s body needs, doctors say