Novartis Signs Deal to Provide TB Drugs Worldwide

Swiss pharmaceuticals manufacturer Novartis signed an agreement today with the World Health Organization to provide free drugs to half a million tuberculosis patients over the next five years. The donation will cost the company $7 million, and it ties in with a campaign by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which has committed $400 million over the past two years to fight TB.

Novartis is one of the world's largest drug companies. It reported a full-year profit of $5.3 billion last year.

TB drugs are well-established and relatively inexpensive. Many people miss out on them, however, due to lack of access to good treatment, according to WHO. The organization calls TB the world's leading curable infectious killer. Almost 2 million people die from TB each year, mainly in Asia, Africa and the former communist bloc.

Novartis plans to buy the drugs from a manufacturer in Bangalore, India, for the Global Drug Facility, a group that organizes bulk procurement of drugs for programs in developing countries. The treatment will be offered as a fixed dose of four drugs in blister packs. This will ensure that more patients take the drugs correctly, thereby reducing the risk of patients developing drug-resistant strains of the disease.

Novartis CEO Daniel Vasella, who had TB as a child, said the donation is designed "to help some of the poorest patients in the world."

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