Drug Resistant TB needs urgent intervention, experts say

 

The first patient takes the very first dose of Bedaquiline in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
(Photo by Yekaterina Sahabutdinova / Partners In Health)

By Dickson Odhiambo

March 24, 2023

Drug Resistant TB needs urgent intervention, experts say

Health Experts have urged the Governments across the world and Donors to speed up access to new, shorter, safer and more effective treatments for drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB).

Doctors without Borders known as Médecins Sans Frontières {MSF} says intervention should also be on the diagnostic tests needed to implement the new treatment regimens.

MSF who has joined the World Health Organization (WHO) and other actors in a ‘Call to Action’ during Today’s World TB Day, has  also urged the US-based diagnostics corporation Cepheid to drop the price of the critical GeneXpert tests to ensure that people with DR-TB can be diagnosed in time to access the shorter and safer treatment regimens.

 

MSF says access to diagnostic testing for resistance is one of the main hurdles to enable rolling out the safer and shorter DR-TB treatment regimens.

 

“Currently, the GeneXpert MTB/RIF test made by US corporation Cepheid is the most widely available rapid molecular diagnostic test in high burden countries to detect resistance to the first-line drug rifampicin. Despite high sales volumes in high TB burden countries and MSF’s analysis showing that it costs Cepheid less than $5 to produce one test, the corporation has kept the price of the test at US$9.98 for over a decade now,” MSF says.

 

 They add that countries should start rolling out the 6-month BPaLM regimen to treat DR-TB while ensuring the nation-wide availability of the GeneXpert MTB/RIF tests.

 

 “Where possible WHO-recommended alternatives such as the Truenat MTB/RIF tests, to detect TB and rifampicin resistance so that people with DR-TB can receive this treatment without any delay,” they further add.

 

Stijn Deborggraeve, Diagnostics Advisor at MSF’s Access Campaign says it is critical that there is a better access to tests to diagnose TB and resistance to drugs used for treating TB so that more people who need treatment can be identified and rollout the shorter and safer all-oral treatment regimens.

 

“We yet again call on Cepheid to reduce the price of the TB tests to no more than $5 each, so that more people with drug-resistant TB can be diagnosed in time and be offered improved, lifesaving treatments.” The MSF Diagnostic Advisor says.

 

The MSF also has called upon for the further reduction of Drug prices.

 

“What will help is national TB treatment programs rolling out these regimens to more people in order to increase demand, as well as having more manufacturers supplying affordable generic versions of bedaquiline and pretomanid,” they add.