TB

On November 12, 2010, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and partners jointly sent an open letter to Cepheid calling for affordable and expanded access to the GeneXpert® MTB/RIF TB diagnostic test. Following this correspondence, TAC and partners had a teleconference with FIND and Cepheid, during which Cepheid indicated that prices for the GeneXpert would be reduced. During December, FIND announced that it had negotiated a volume-based price reduction agreement with Cepheid, lowering the cost of the GeneXpert.

The global response to help countries scale up treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is underfunded and ineffective, according to a new report released today by three medical and medical advocacy organisations. A 20-month effort to reform the Green Light Committee Initiative, a World Health Organization (WHO)-hosted programme designed to help countries gain technical support for scale up of MDR-TB and access to quality-assured MDR-TB drugs, needs to be closely monitored to see if the reforms will address many key bottlenecks.

A new rapid test for tuberculosis (TB) which was just recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for widespread use has the potential to revolutionize the world’s fight against the disease, said the Treatment Action Group today,