Novartis gives free drugs to 500,000 TB patients

Novartis signed an accord with the World Health Organization (WHO) to treat 100,000 patients a year free of charge for five years. This agreement is the first such pact between the United Nations agency and the private sector to fight the disease.

The donated anti-TB drugs were developed by Sandoz GmbH (a member of the Novartis Group) and will be supplied by Sandoz India Pvt ltd in form of a special patient-Kit to the Global Drug Facility (GDF / WHO). The patient-Kit contains a full patient treatment in form of modern "Fixed-Dose-Combinations" according to the treatment guidelines of WHO/IUATLD and part of the WHO essential drug list.

Content of the patient-Kit:

• 1 box containing 6 blister packs of 28 tablets of Rimstar® 4-FDC (2 months initial treatment with a single pill containing 4 different medicines)
• 1 box containing 12 blister packs of 28 tablets of Rimactazid® 150/75 (4 months continuous treatment with a single pill containing 2 different medicines.

WHO director-general Lee Jong-Wook said: "We encourage other drug manufacturers to follow their (Novartis') example. Massive investment in patient care from the pharmaceutical industry will have an enormous impact on reducing the TB death toll." Dr. Daniel Vasella, Chief Executive of Novartis, who himself suffered from tuberculosis as a child said: "The donation is to help some of the poorest patients in the world."