Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Johnson & Johnson Makes $30 Million Commitment to USAID to Fight Tuberculosis
Janssen and Johnson & Johnson have pledged to donate $30 million worth of the drug Sirturo (bedaquiline) to USAID over the next four years. The commitment will allow USAID to distribute Sirturo to over 100 low and middle income countries at little or no cost. Incidentally, after receiving a fast-track designation, Sirtuo received FDA approval in 2012 under its accelerated approval program. Bedaquiline was among the first new classes of antibiotics approved by the FDA in close to five decades.
USAID is hoping that Johnson & Johnson’s latest commitment will spur further innovations in other global public health crises in which the status quo approach is no longer a viable solution....