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US pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson is under investigation in South Africa for allegedly charging excessive prices for a key tuberculosis drug
US pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson is under investigation in South Africa for allegedly charging excessive prices for a key tuberculosis drug. This was revealed by South Africa’s antitrust regulator, the South African Competition Commission. J&J’s Belgian subsidiary, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, was also under investigation.
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The Commission said it opened an investigation this week based on reports that the companies might have engaged in exclusionary practices and excessive pricing of bedaquiline, a tuberculosis drug sold under the brand name Sirturo. However, the investigating agency refused to divulge further details of its investigation. The allegation expressed in some quarters is that bedaquiline is priced more than twice.
Bedaquiline was approved in 2012 and is used to treat drug-resistant tuberculosis. In South Africa, tuberculosis is the leading cause of death, with more than 50,000 deaths in 2021. South Africa has more than 7 million people living with HIV, more than any other country in the world.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), almost a third of deaths among people with HIV/AIDS are due to tuberculosis. The health watchdog also says that tuberculosis cases increased globally in 2021 for the first time in years. J&J has previously faced calls to cut prices for bedaquiline and said last month it would provide a six-month course of treatment for one patient through the Stop TB Partnership’s Global Medicines Facility, for a cost of US$130.The South African government buys bedaquiline directly from J&J and Janssen, not through the TB scheme, and pays about US$280 for a six-month course of treatment for one patient.
