Bedaquiline
- February 6, 2023
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Bedaquiline
Subject : Science and technology
Section: Health
Concept :
- Drug resistant tuberculosis (DRTB) has posed a significant public health challenge for decades.
- After 50 years, a new drug to treat TB — bedaquiline —was approved. It had been developed with significant public funding, including from the United States National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
- Bedaquiline is now core to WHO recommended treatment regimens,thanks to the collective work of the TB community and treatment providers. Despite the joint effort, it is Johnson & Johnson (J&J) that holds a monopoly on the drug in many countries.
- A formulation patent would not prevent generic manufacturers from developing the active pharmaceutical ingredient in their own formulations after July 2023.
Bedaquiline
- Bedaquiline is a medication used to treat active tuberculosis.
- Specifically, it is used to treat multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) along with other medications for tuberculosis.
- It is a oral drug.
Tuberculosis
- It is an infectious disease caused by bacteria (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) that most often affect the lungs. TB is spread from person to person through the air.
- About one-third of the world’s population has latent TB, which means people have been infected by TB bacteria but are not (yet) ill with disease and cannot transmit the disease.
Drug-resistant forms of TB
- Misuse or inappropriate use, as well as poor quality of antibiotics have resulted into drug-resistant forms of TB. These drug-resistant forms range from multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) up to extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB):
- Multi-drug resistant TB: It is resistant to at least Isoniazid and Rifampicin, two of the most effective TB drugs. It can only be treated with expensive, newer antibiotics over a longer period.
- Extensively drug-resistant TB: It is resistant to almost all forms of medical treatment with little hope of survival for the victims.
Is Tuberculosis Curable?
- Tuberculosis is curable and preventable but it is a complex disease. On the one hand, it can affect different areas of the human body, such as the lungs, the lymph nodes, the skeletal system or the brain.
- On the other hand, different types of TB exist, which can either be completely curable, but in the case of drug-resistant forms could also mean certain death.
TB Burden in India
- As per the Global TB Report 2017, India accounts for about a quarter of the world’s TB cases (approx.28, 00,000 occurred and 4.5 lakh people died due to TB) and also shares the highest burden of both TB and MDR TB.
- There are an estimated 79,000 multi-drug resistant TB patients among the notified cases of pulmonary TB each year.
- India is also the country with the second highest number (after South Africa) of estimated HIV associated TB cases.
- India also has more than a million “missing” cases every year that are not notified and most remain either undiagnosed or unaccountably and inadequately diagnosed and treated in the private sector.
The National Strategic Plan (2017-2025):
- It is crafted in line with other health sector strategies and global efforts, such as the draft National Health Policy 2015, WHO’s End TB Strategy and the Sustainable Development Goals.
- It is aiming to achieve elimination of TB, by 2025. During plan period, targets for TB are:
- 80% reduction in TB incidence (i.e. reduction from 211 per lakh to 43 per lakh)
- 90% reduction in TB mortality (i.e. reduction from 32 per lakh to 3 per lakh)
- 0% patient having catastrophic expenditure due to TB
- TB elimination have been integrated into the four strategic pillars of “Detect – Treat – Prevent – Build” (DTPB).
- It has also linked Bank Account, AADHAR and NIKSHAY for direct cash benefits to patients.