TB prevention trial launched

THE National Institute of Health (NIH) has launched a Tuberculosis ( TB) prevention trial for people exposed to multidrug-resistant in 12 high burden countries.

Meanwhile, a new agreement has been reached for the Global Fund and Sanofi in partnership with Unitaid to drastically lower the price of rifapentine, a critically important drug used to prevent TB.

Sanofi in partnership with Unitaid and the Global Fund announced a two thirds reduction in key preventative TB drug Rifampentine (Priftin) to enable availability in low income countries with a high burden of TB and TB-HIV.

This followed the conference that was convened by the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease in India on TB prevention.

Its executive director, Jose Luis Castro, said there was need for a prevention revolution if TB emergency was to end.

“It is indeed timely that we are seeing such promising movement on all facets of prevention – vaccines, drug prices and new drugs – now we need to ensure that going forward, preventing wherever we treat becomes the new normal,” he said.

Mr Castro said a study showed that some 1,700 children under five years of age were saved from potentially developing TB in four countries in Africa

The agreement has brought rifapentine (Priftin®) 150mg tablets down from 13.60/€pack of 24 tablets to a price of 4.62/€pack of 24 tablets, a 66 percent discount.

According to Centre for Infectious Diseases Research in Zambia research in 2011, over 43, 000 new TB cases were diagnosed in Zambia making it among one of the highest burden countries in the world ( WHO TB Global TB Report 2012).