India Rejects Johnson & Johnson’s Plea To Extend Patent On Key Tuberculosis

New Delhi: The Indian Patent Office rejected US pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson’s application to extend its monopoly on the key tuberculosis drug, bedaquiline, which is set to expire in July.

On Thursday, the agency delivered the judgment on a plea filed by two TB survivors, Nandita Venkatesan and Phumeza Tisile. Bedaquiline, the key drug used in TB treatment, is a member of the diarylquinoline class of drugs and has a unique action mechanism. The drugs work by targeting the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) synthase enzyme of the TB mycobacteria.

Developed by Janssen – Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) pharmaceutical division – in 2012, bedaquiline received conditional approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB. A 2018 WHO rapid communication on MDR-TB treatment guidelines prioritised bedaquiline among drugs for treatment and, in 2019, it was launched in India.