Viatris on Monday announced that it has entered into a new agreement with MedAccess, and TB Alliance to reduce the price of pretomanid, a drug used to treat multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, by 34 percent.
Pretomanid is part of two new treatment regimens with high efficacy and shorter treatment durations recently recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the preferred regimens for most drug-resistant tuberculosis patients.
According to experts, Pretomanid (Pa) is found to be effective at curing 89-91% of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) patients treated.
Globally, less than two-thirds of drug-resistant TB patients are successfully treated. Previously recommended treatment options have been limited, expensive, toxic, and lengthy – requiring patients to take more than 20 pills per day for 9-20 months. With the new WHO guidance on TB treatment, almost all drug-resistant TB patients will now be eligible for the shorter BPaL/BPaLM regimens.
In July 2020, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) had approved the TB drug pretomanid (developed specifically for certain drug-resistant forms of the disease) for conditional access under the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP), making India the second country in the world to provide regulatory approval for this product.
Last year, an estimated 1.6 million people lost their lives to TB, including 187,000 people living with HIV. The WHO estimates that 10.6 million people fell ill with TB in 2021, an increase of 4.5% from 2020. Of the new cases, an estimated 450,000 were drug resistant. The COVID-19 pandemic also hampered access to MDR-TB treatment. Last year, 1,62,000 MDR-TB patients were on treatment, compared to 1,82,000 in 2019.
Meanwhile, MedAccess projects that its guarantee will enable an additional 36,000 patients to be treated successfully and help avert 31,000 adverse events that require hospitalisation or cause disability as patients switch from the current standard-of-care.
“We are proud of our innovative partnership with MedAccess and TB Alliance in setting new standards for accelerating the pace of access and delivering breakthrough treatments to patients in the greatest need. At Viatris, a key way we deliver on our mission to empower people worldwide to live healthier at every stage of life, regardless of geography or circumstance, is to provide access to medicines. The partnership is a step forward in the global fight against TB to enable greater access and affordability for those affected by multidrug-resistant TB,” Viatris President Rajiv Malik said in a statement.
Six-month drug-resistant TB treatment regimens were first developed by TB Alliance, a not-for-profit product development partnership committed to developing and delivering ground-breaking TB therapies. Its drug pretomanid received its first regulatory approval from the US Food and Drug Administration in 2019 as part of a six-month, all-oral regimen. For high-burden countries, TB Alliance has granted non-exclusive licenses for pretomanid to multiple high-quality drug manufacturers, including Viatris, the company stated.
According to the company, new ceiling price will be available to more than 140 governments, and NGOs and public sector procurers purchasing pretomanid in those countries.
