GDF Slashes Price of Medicine to Treat Drug-Resistant TB
The Stop TB Partnership’s Global Drug Facility (GDF) today announced a 25% price reduction for pretomanid produced by Lupin, now available via GDF at $169 per treatment course, down from an October 2024 price of $224.
GDF projects the pretomanid price reduction will save GDF clients upwards of $3 million per year. A lower price will also support high-burden TB countries who rely on GDF to set sustainable reference prices they can then use in their price negotiations when procuring large volumes of pretomanid directly from suppliers, saving National TB Programmes an additional $5 million annually.
This pretomanid price reduction follows other recent price reductions announced by GDF for bedaquiline (B), linezolid (L), and moxifloxacin (M) that – together with pretomanid (Pa) – comprise BPaLM, the preferred DR-TB regimen recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
All combined, these price reductions result in a new, lowest price of $310 per 6-month BPaLM treatment course, a price reduction of 47% from the December 2022 price of $588 (when WHO first recommended BPaLM (i)
In total, GDF’s cumulative price reductions for the BPaLM regimen medicines will save donors and National TB Programmes approximately $37 million per year, an amount equivalent to the cost of 120,000 BPaLM treatment courses. Worldwide, of the 176,000 people treated annually for DR-TB, approximately 132,000 are eligible for treatment with the BPaLM regimen.
“This is a remarkable feat that couldn’t have come at a better time as future TB funding hangs in the balance”, said Dr Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director of the Stop TB Partnership. “We want everyone to be aware of this price of $310 per 6-month BPaLM – we know that there are countries that pay much more for these treatment regimens”, she added.
“The rapid decline in DR-TB regimen prices is unprecedented given the low-volume, fragmented nature of this market. This kind of success can only be achieved with efforts by and collaboration across numerous stakeholders, including donors, governments, regulators, implementers, and a committed group of medicine suppliers”, noted Dr Brenda Waning, Chief of the Global Drug Facility.
For more information about these products, please refer to GDF Product Catalogs and Ordering Lists. For detailed information on regimen pricing, please refer to GDF TB Regimen Prices.
For further support, please contact your GDF Country Supply Officer or email gdf@stoptb.org.
(i) [1] WHO. 2022. WHO consolidated guidelines on tuberculosis. Module 4: treatment - drug-resistant tuberculosis treatment, 2022 update. Geneva: WHO. https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/365308/9789240063129-eng.pdf.
