First New TB Drug Approved In 50 Years Must Be Made Widely Available

Tajikistan 2012 © Natasha Sergeeva/MSF A young patient in Tajikistan. NEW YORK/GENEVA , December 31, 2012—The approval by the US Food and Drug Administration of an important new tuberculosis treatment must lead to its availability in countries with high levels of the drug-resistant form of the deadly disease, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said today. The new drug, bedaquiline, is the first active agent against tuberculosis to be registered since 1963, and its approval was welcomed by MSF as it marks a major improvement in combating the most challenging forms of TB, which require complex regimes often accompanied by pronounced side effects. “The first new drug to treat TB in 50 years is an immense milestone,” said Dr. Manica Balasegaram, executive director of the MSF Access Campaign. “The fact that the drug is active against drug-resistant forms of the disease makes it a potential game changer.” Today’s treatment for multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) consists of a two-year course of up to 20 different pills that must be ingested every day, combined with roughly eight months of daily injections. Patients are subjected to excruciating side effects, ranging from permanent deafness and persistent nausea, to psychosis. Globally, only 48 percent of people who begin treatment for DR-TB are cured. The cure rate in MSF treatment programs is slig...
Source: MSF News - Category: Global & Universal Source Type: news