Seven weeks after saying it would allow generic competition for drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) treatment Sirturo (bedaquiline) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), Johnson & Johnson has slashed its own drug's price in those markets.
Under the new pricing structure, J&J's drug will cost $130 for a six-month course in LMICs, a 55% discount from its prior price. Lupin also has reduced the cost of its generic version of bedaquiline by 33% to $194. The United Nations-backed Stop TB Partnership revealed the new prices on Wednesday.
Last month, J&J said it would not enforce secondary patents on Sirturo in LMICs, paving the way for generic competition in many countries around the globe.
The primary patent for Sirturo—which in 2012 became the first new TB drug approved in more than four decades—expired last month. But J&J had also patented improvements to its formulation, extending its protection for Sirturo into 2027.
The reduced prices will increase access to bedaquiline and will “keep us on the path to end TB by 2030,” Atul Gawande, the assistant administrator of USAID’s Global Health Bureau, said in a release.
The Stop TB Partnership estimates that 450,000 people worldwide have drug-resistant TB. The reduced bedaquiline prices will generate $8 million in savings over a 16-month period, allowing for 51,000 additional doses to be procured by the organization’s Global Drug Facility, it said.
J&J revealed its decision to not enforce secondary patents a few days after the company received harsh social media criticism, sparked by a Twitter post by author John Green, which drew 622,000 views in a span of 24 hours.
“When you attempt to evergreen a patent, even though you know the decision will cost hundreds of thousands of human lives over the next four years, you’re tarnishing your corporate reputation,” Green said.
J&J responded on Twitter that Green’s claim was “false” and that it had already made a deal with Stop TB Partnership, agreeing to permit generic competition.
In April of this year, Doctors Without Borders implored J&J to relinquish its secondary patent protection in countries with a high TB burden. The organization estimated that removing patent protection would reduce the price of bedaquiline by two-thirds.
In a country with a high drug-resistant TB burden, such as Nigeria, there are an estimated 15,000 who need bedaquiline—including many who are undiagnosed—and the numbers increase annually, said its director of public health, Chukwuma Anyaike.
“It takes up a significant proportion of our annual resources,” Anyaike said in the release. “This drop in price is coming in the very right moment for us, as we plan to further increase the treatment coverage rate.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/johnsonjohnson-tuberculosis/johnson-johnson-cuts-price-of-tb-drug-bedaquiline-in-poorer-countries-idUSL4N2ED34C