South Africa, Colombia Aim to Get Lower-Cost Drugs for TB, HIV

2023-12-05

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  • South Africa and Colombia are among the countries aiming to push drug companies to permit low-cost versions of drugs for deadly diseases.
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  • The drugs are for people with drug-resistant versions of tuberculosis (TB) and with HIV/AIDS.
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  • One target is the drug bedaquiline.
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  • It is used for treating people with drug-resistant tuberculosis.
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  • In South Africa, TB was blamed for the deaths of more than 50,000 people in 2021, making it the country's leading cause of death.
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  • Johnson & Johnson is a U.S.-based drug and medical technology company.
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  • The company owns a patent for the drug bedaquiline.
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  • Patents legally protect a company's right to manufacture and sell a product that it developed or owns for a limited time.
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  • The legal protection prevents other companies from making the same drug without permission.
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  • In recent months, activists have protested efforts by Johnson & Johnson to protect its patent.
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  • In March, TB patients asked the Indian government to make a lower cost copy of bedaquiline.
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  • The government agreed, saying Johnson & Johnson's patent could be broken.
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  • In July, the time limit for Johnson & Johnson's patent on the drug ran out in South Africa.
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  • The company extended the patent until 2027 under South African law.
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  • However, activists became angry and accused Johnson & Johnson of trying to make a lot of money from the drug.
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  • The South African government then began investigating the company's pricing policies.
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  • South Africa had been paying about $282 per treatment course: a full group of treatments.
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  • This was more than twice as much as poor countries involved in the Swiss-based Stop TB Partnership paid.
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  • In September, about a week after South Africa's investigation began, Johnson & Johnson announced it would not enforce its patent in more than 130 countries.
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  • This would permit other drug makers in those countries to copy the drug.
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  • Christophe Perrin is a TB expert at Doctors Without Borders.
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  • He called the decision "a big surprise."
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  • He said protecting patents is central to how most drug companies plan their businesses.
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  • In October, Colombia announced that it would permit a third party to make the HIV drug dolutegravir without permission from the drug's patent-holder, Viiv Healthcare.
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  • The decision came after more than 120 groups asked the government to let more people use the drug, which is supported by the World Health Organization (WHO).
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  • Peter Maybarduk is with the Washington, D.C., non-profit group Public Citizen.
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  • He thinks the Colombian government is trying to take control of its treatment of HIV after not having enough vaccines for COVID-19.
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  • He noted that Brazilian activists are pushing their government to do the same.
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  • However, some experts say more needs to change before poor countries can produce their own medicines.
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  • Petro Terblanche is managing director of the biotechnology company Afrigen Biologics based in Cape Town, South Africa.
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  • She said African countries produced less than one percent of all vaccines made around the world when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
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  • But, Terblanche said, Africa used more than half of the world's supply.
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  • Afrigen Biologics is part of a WHO-supported effort to produce a COVID vaccine using the same mRNA technology as those made by U.S.-based drug makers Pfizer and Moderna.
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  • Terblanche also noted that African countries need to improve their ability to deliver vaccines.
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  • "If we can't get (vaccines and medicines) to the people who need them, they aren't useful," she said.
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  • Lynette Keneilwe Mabote-Eyde is a health care activist who has ties to the nonprofit Treatment Action Group based in New York City.
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  • She noted that South Africa has no clear law permitting the government to take legal action against a patent or a patent extension.
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  • The South African department of health did not answer questions from the Associated Press about patents.
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  • In its yearly report on TB released in November, the WHO said there were more than 10 million people sickened by the disease in 2022 and 1.3 million deaths.
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  • After COVID-19, tuberculosis is the world's deadliest infectious disease.
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  • It is also now believed to be the main cause of death of people with HIV.
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  • The WHO says only about 40 percent of people with drug-resistant TB are being treated.
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  • Zolelwa Sifumba, a South African doctor, found she had drug-resistant TB in 2012.
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  • She went through 18 months of treatment, taking about 20 pills every day in addition to daily injections.
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  • These left her in severe pain and resulted in some hearing loss.
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  • Bedaquiline was not a standard treatment in South Africa until 2018.
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  • "I wanted to quit (treatment) every single day," she said.
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  • Since her recovery, Sifumba has been pushing for better TB treatment.
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  • She said it makes little sense to charge poor countries, which have more cases of TB, high prices for necessary medicines.
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  • She questioned why poor countries would have to pay a lot for medicine.
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  • "If the lower income countries can't get it, then what's the point? Who are you making it for?" she said.
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  • I'm Gena Bennett. And I'm Andrew Smith.