Johnson and Johnson shares licence for tuberculosis drug after novelist’s viral campaign

The move will allow Stop TB Partnership to offer licences to tender, procure, and supply generic versions of SIRTURO, otherwise known as bedaquiline, in 44 new countries, including those where J&J’s patent remains in effect, nearly doubling the reach of the company tuberculosis treatment. “In my knowledge, I can’t recall a similar deal to this,” Brenda Waning, chief of Global Drug Facility, a partner in distributing the drugs, told Forbes. She said she hopes the project can “set a model” for other companies. … Mr Green’s followers briefly made #PatientsNotPatents a trending topic on Twitter. In April, Doctors Without Borders also called on the drug company to make the treatment more available. “We are deeply concerned that the persistent high price of bedaquiline will continue to block countries from rolling out the newer, shorter, game-changing, all-oral regimens for treating deadly, drug-resistant forms of TB,” Christophe Perrin, a tuberculosis pharmacist with the group, said in a statement. … The company has since told Medpage Today that it decided to allow the generic drugs in June, before the pressure campaign began.