Exclusive: MSF calls for transparency after its bill for a trial of TB treatment came to a fraction of the billions claimed by pharmaceutical companies
A combination oral-only therapy of bedaquiline, pretomanid, and linezolid was significantly more effective than standard care in preventing unfavorable outcomes in patients with treatment-resistant tuberculosis.
As one of the winners of the 2022 Stephen Lawn TB–HIV Research Leadership Prize and
chief investigator in the trial of a successful oral drug regimen for multidrug-resistant
tuberculosis, Bern-Thomas Nyang wa, Medical Director of the Amsterdam Operational
Centre of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), has reason to feel pleased. And he is. But
he also feels frustrated. As he points out: “We know that close to half a million
people [globally] develop drug-resistant tuberculosis every year, but at the moment
I don t think even a thousand get the new treatment.” In the light of Nyang wa and
colleagues research study, WHO revised its guidance on managing multidrug-resistant
tuberculosis.