In an unusual move, multilateral funder Unitaid published an open letter on Friday calling out Johnson & Johnson for enforcing secondary patents on a lifesaving tuberculosis drug in countries with a high burden of drug-resistant TB.
In the open letter addressed to J&J CEO Joaquin Duato, Unitaid Executive Director Philippe Duneton has called on the pharmaceutical company to expand access to the TB drug bedaquiline by removing all secondary patents on the drug, or by providing “comprehensive licenses to generic manufacturers.” He also asked J&J to make the drug more affordable to all countries with a high burden of TB by offering the drug at $130 for six months of treatment. That price is only currently available to countries procuring the drug from the Stop TB Partnership’s Global Drug Facility as part of a recent deal, which “effectively excludes several countries where the rates of MDR-TB are highest.”
While acknowledging J&J investments to develop TB medicines, the letter expressed disappointment that the drug company has “ignored the public health community’s calls to secure comprehensive and fair access to bedaquiline, acting only when generic competition became inevitable and even then, not going far enough.”