Doctors Without Borders calls on Johnson & Johnson to withdraw or abandon extended patents on lifesaving TB drug

Dear friends in the media, At Doctors Without Borders we work in many countries—including the Philippines—to diagnose and treat tuberculosis, and we need drugs like bedaquiline in our work. But we are faced with many challenges, such as this secondary patent held by US pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson’s. Please help us call on J&J to withdraw or abandon extended patents on this lifesaving TB drug. Full press release attached. For those interested, interviews may be arranged. Thank you. 18 July 2023—As Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) 20-year primary patent on the critical, lifesaving drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) drug bedaquiline expires in majority of countries including India today, Doctors Without Borders Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reiterated its call for the US pharmaceutical corporation to publicly announce it will not enforce any ‘secondary’ patents for the drug in any country with a high burden of TB, and withdraw and abandon all pending secondary patent applications for this critical drug everywhere. Doctors Without Borders also called for a commitment from J&J to not take any legal action against any generic manufacturer that exports generic versions of bedaquiline to or from TB high-burden countries where secondary patents on the drug exist. The corporation should make this announcement public by the UN TB Summit taking place in New York this September. J&J holds secondary patents in at least 34 of the 49 countries with a high burden of TB, TB-HIV and/or DR-TB, for which bedaquiline is an essential part of treatment regimens. The Philippines is one of these 34 countries (see diagram, attached). Bedaquiline tablets are now the backbone of TB treatment regimens, recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for a far-improved, shorter, better-tolerated and more-effective treatment for people affected by DR-TB. The current recommended treatment, containing bedaquiline, is all oral, 6 months long and can achieve cure rates as high as 89%. This is a vast improvement over the older treatments that had to be administered for 18 months and included daily painful injections. Photo: MSB152693_Medium Caption: In the Philippines, Doctors Without Borders has been working with the Manila Health Department on a TB screening project in Tondo, Manila. The Philippines has one of the highest burdens of TB worldwide, and is one of the 34 countries affected by the J&J secondary patent. ​Regina Layug Rosero Communications and Liaison Officer – Philippines South East and East Asia and the Pacific (SEEAP) Project Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Mobile/WhatsApp: +63 9178163500 Website: https://doctorswithoutborders-apac.org/en

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