TB patients to get free drugs

An agreement signed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Novartis means that half a million of the world's poorest tuberculosis patients will benefit from free life-saving drugs.

Novartis will donate the drugs to the Global Drug Facility, which is hosted by WHO and operated by the Stop TB Partnership. The drugs will be provided over a five-year period to countries scaling up TB control with support from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

Richard Feachem, the executive director of the Global Fund, applauded the donation as an example of public-private partnerships that the organisation seeks to encourage. The Global Drug Facility has supplied procurement support and medicines to 2.8m TB patients in 65 countries since its launch.

Under the agreement, Novartis will manufacture special patient kits containing fixed-dose combination tablets in blisterpacks. The design improves patient compliance and greatly reduces the risk of developing drug-resistant TB, which is far more costly and difficult to treat. The drugs will be supplied free of charge to programmes using DOTS, the internationally recommended strategy for TB control.

Daniel Vasella, Novartis chairman and ceo, said the donation was one aspect of a multi-pronged strategy to help combat the disease. 'We are pleased to contribute to the cure of many of the poorest patients with tuberculosis. This initiative is part of our engagement in the fight against leprosy, malaria and dengue fever, all endemic diseases in developing countries,' he added.

'Novartis has taken a strong lead in fighting tuber-culosis and we encourage other drug manufacturers to follow their example,' said WHO director-general Lee Jong-wook. 'Massive investment in patient care from the pharmaceutical industry will have an enormous impact on reducing the TB death toll.'