Bedaquiline is a lifesaving drug. It spares patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) from older, harsher drugs that cause debilitating side effects and don’t guarantee a cure.
Johnson & Johnson, the pharmaceutical corporation that holds the patent for bedaquiline, didn’t develop the drug on its own. It was created with significant taxpayer funding and with help from the global tuberculosis humanitarian community—including Doctors Without Borders. Yet they’ve priced it so high that only one in five people who need it can actually afford it.
All of us deserve a say in how it is priced.
And even more importantly, people with drug-resistant TB can’t afford to wait another moment for this lifesaving treatment. In 2018, 1.5 million lives were lost to TB. And with the coronavirus pandemic spreading, people with preexisting conditions and compromised immune systems are the most vulnerable.
What good is a lifesaving drug if the people who need it can’t afford it?
Over 30,600 people around in the United States have joined our global campaign calling on Johnson & Johnson to lower the price of bedaquiline to $1 per day.
What good is a lifesaving drug if the people who need it can’t afford it?
Over 30,600 people around in the United States have joined our global campaign calling on Johnson & Johnson to lower the price of bedaquiline to $1 per day.
We wouldn’t ask if it weren’t important. Stand with Doctors Without Borders and demand that Johnson & Johnson lower the price of this lifesaving tuberculosis drug!
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