- Monday, March 03, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
In a development that would give relief to millions of tuberculosis (TB) patients in India, those suffering from drug-resistant TB in India could soon afford critical medication after the authorities turned down an application by US pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson to extend a patent.
According to a report by The Guardian, the giant sought to extend its patent on bedaquiline, which is due to expire in July, for four more years. The extension would have prevented cheaper generic versions from reaching the market.
The development which happened on Friday (24), which was also the World Tuberculosis Day, was seen as a win for two women who have been trying relentlessly to make a TB drug universally affordable.
They are Nandita Venkatesan from India and Phumeza Tisle from South Africa who had filed a petition four years ago with the Indian Patent Office to stop the US company’s application.
As a result of the decision, door for other companies to make accessible versions has opened with some health experts predicting that the costs of treatment could now be slashed by as much as 80 per cent, from $46 (£37) a month per patient to $8 (£6.50), The Guardian report added.
Since India sends generic drugs to many low-income nations, the latest development will assist patients in states that get their TB medicines through the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Bedaquiline is considered the final resort for patients with advanced TB. It has, like most treatments for drug-resistant TB, unpleasant side-effects, but when the FDA approved it 11 years ago, it was the first new drug for the disease in four decades.
Indian pharmaceutical companies have begun working on generic versions of the drug and some have submitted data to the WHO and have also pre-qualified to become suppliers. A version is expected to be available in August.
Venkatesan, who lost her hearing 10 years ago because of treatment for intestinal TB and has had to undergo painful operations and injections, told The Guardian that she could not hold back tears when the patent office announced its decision on Friday.
“The verdict is too late for me, my hearing has gone for good. But the fight had to be fought because if something better and easier is available, then why shouldn’t patients have access to it?” Venkatesan, a 33-year-old journalist from Mumbai, was quoted as saying.
While bedaquiline is procured by the Indian government for its TB programme, it is available mostly in TB clinics in large cities, but not in smaller towns and villages. “Now, when the price of the generic version comes down, it will be much cheaper for the government to buy, and this will make it more accessible,” Venkatesan said.
She understood the argument forwarded by Johnson & Johnson that a high cost of developing new drugs has to be recovered through patents but she asked that the giant’s patents have already lasted two decades and it should now be more cognisant of the fact that lives are under danger.
