New Delhi: In a significant move to improve access to life-saving tuberculosis treatment, the Indian Patent Office (IPO) has rejected Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) request to extend its patent on the drug Bedaquiline. This decision is expected to pave the way for affordable versions of the long-acting injectable TB drug, benefiting millions of patients in India and globally, experts told TOI.
The high cost of therapy for injectable Bedaquiline, running into hundreds of dollars, has rendered it inaccessible to patients in many developing countries, including India—one of the world’s tuberculosis hotspots. Although TB drugs are provided free of cost under India’s government-run programs, the steep price remains a significant barrier to treatment.
The rejection marks the denial of all three patent applications filed by J&J’s pharmaceutical arm, Janssen, for Bedaquiline. Earlier in July, the IPO had rejected a patent for the pediatric version of the drug, a critical treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO). This follows the expiry of the drug’s primary patent last year.
The current application, filed by J&J in 2020 for a patent on the long-acting injectable version of Bedaquiline—primarily intended for tuberculosis preventive therapy—faced opposition from patient advocacy groups, including the Delhi Network of Positive People, Ganesh Acharya, and the Sankalp Rehabilitation Trust.
