Stop TB Partnership and UNITAID join forces to address drug shortfalls for TB drugs

The Stop TB Partnership's Global Drug Facility and UNITAID have announced a collaboration with 19 countries to address life-threatening shortages of anti-tuberculosis drugs. The initiative will provide these products to countries that are scaling up their TB control efforts and have confirmed future support from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria or another donor but are not able to cover their full needs at present.

"This collaboration will deliver drugs to more than three-quarters of a million people who otherwise might not get treatment or could have their treatment interrupted because no drugs were available," said Marcos Espinal, executive secretary of the Stop TB Partnership, adding: "getting anti-TB drugs to people who need them and making sure they complete their treatment is the best weapon we have for preventing drug-resistant TB."

The project, which is restricted to anti-TB treatments suitable for people whose form of the disease is not resistant to standard therapies, also provides for the establishment of a stockpile of drugs to be made available to nations facing shortages because of humanitarian emergencies or inadequate capacity for planning orders.