South Africa regulator gives MSF access to cheaper TB drug linezolid

After a three-year long struggle, humanitarian aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has received approval from the South African Medicines Control Council (MCC) to import a dramatically more affordable version of an antibiotic, linezolid, in order to expand access to the drug and provide better treatment options to patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) in Khayelitsha, Western Cape.

MSF has been using linezolid in individualised drug regimens to treat patients with DR-TB in Khayelitsha since 2011, by purchasing the drug at the private sector price of over 700 rand (~$65) per 600mg tablet. Linezolid, global pharma giant Pfizer’s (NYSE: PFE) Zyvox brand, is only one drug in an already expensive regimen for extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB), and the cost of the drug during up to two years of treatment can exceed 520,000 rand (~$49,000) per patient.