The Competition Commission is investigating whether Johnson & Johnson’s drug bedaquiline, used in the treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), is excessively priced in SA.
The drug was widely welcomed as the first new treatment for tuberculosis in more than 50 years when it was registered in SA in 2014. Before that it was first trialled in SA on drug-resistant patients who had no other treatment options left. It reduces the treatment of MDR-TB from about 18 months to six months and replaces a much older drug that often caused deafness in patients. ..
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