Protest At J&J In New Brunswick For Cheaper Tuberculosis Drug

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — Another day, another protest outside the Johnson & Johnson world headquarters in New Brunswick.

Last month, an artist dropped an 800-pound opioid spoon outside the J&J front entrance, to highlight the pharmaceutical company's role in contracting with Tasmanian poppy growers and mass-producing opiate painkillers.

And on Thursday of this week, protesters were again at 1 Johnson & Johnson Plaza, this time from Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières. They were calling on Johnson & Johnson to lower the price of its life-saving tuberculosis medicine, an antibiotic called bedaquiline.

The organization is demanding the corporation make the drug available at no more than $1 per day for people with drug-resistant TB across the world.

Researchers from the University of Liverpool have calculated that bedaquiline could be produced and sold — while still making a profit — for as little as 25 cents per day, if at least 108,000 treatment courses were sold per year.

At $1 per day, the price of bedaquiline would be $600 per person for the 20 months of treatment that many patients require. In comparison, the lowest price Johnson & Johnson charges today for 20 months of bedaquiline is nearly $1,200 — or $2 per day.

And that's just in the world's poorest countries, which are eligible to purchase the drug through a special fund set up through the United Nations. In other countries, Johnson & Johnson charges much more for bedaquiline, the group says.

But according to Seema Kumar, a vice president at Johnson & Johnson, the company sells bedaquiline for what he says is a non-profit price of $400 for a six-month supply.

“We share MSF’s (Doctors Without Borders') goal of ensuring that bedaquiline reaches all patients who need it," Kumar said in a statement provided to Patch. "Bedaquiline is available in more than 130 countries at a not-for-profit price of $400 — which is on par with or even cheaper than some generic medicines used to treat TB. Over the past four years, we have partnered with the U.S. Agency for International Development and JSC Pharmstandard to provide 105,000 courses of treatment, free of charge, to 80 countries in greatest need of the medicine."

Johnson & Johnson also just recently pledge a $500 million investment into HIV and tuberculosis research and development.

However, most patients need 20 months of treatment with bedaquiline, priced by J&J at nearly $1,200.

“Bedaquiline saved my life,” said Noludwe Mabandlela, who was treated by Doctors Without Borders for tuberculosis in South Africa and was cured in the beginning of this year. “I was experiencing a lot of side effects during my previous treatment which included drugs that need to be injected. After switching to bedaquiline, my health improved much faster. I wouldn't wish anyone to go through what I experienced.”

“Bedaquiline was developed using taxpayer money and contributions from the global TB community,” said Sharonann Lynch, HIV & TB policy advisor for the group. “Those who contributed to bedaquiline’s development should have a say in how the drug is priced. We’re calling on J&J to price bedaquiline at no more than $1 per day so that it can be made available to all people with drug-resistant TB. We will not back down until the price of bedaquiline is brought down."

Kumar countered that Johnson & Johnson fully funded all 14 studies to get FDA approval for bedaquiline, including 11 Phase I studies and 3 Phase II studies.

"All revenues generated are reinvested to support critical activities, including global manufacturing and distribution of the medicine and, importantly, surveillance programs to safeguard the antibiotic’s effectiveness," she said.

Related: 800-Pound Opioid Spoon Dropped At Johnson & Johnson's HQ