Wall Street Journal: Family Asks Indian Court to Allow Woman to Take Last-Resort Tuberculosis Drug
“The family of an 18-year-old woman is fighting in court for access to a new tuberculosis drug that doctors say may be her only hope of survival, in a case that is being closely watched by TB experts and health workers in India and around the world. The family of the young woman, whose name her lawyer asked to keep confidential, filed a petition in Delhi’s High Court in December seeking access to bedaquiline, one of the first new tuberculosis drugs to be developed in nearly half a century…” (McKay, 1/16).

Washington Post: Indian teen’s court battle for a new tuberculosis drug draws global support
“…The new drug, bedaquiline, came to India last year, and it is the only hope for a frail 18-year-old woman in the northern city of Patna who has failed to respond to traditional antibiotics. She was diagnosed as suffering from ‘extremely drug-resistant’ tuberculosis. But the supply of bedaquiline is tightly controlled by the Indian government, which administers it sparingly to patients in only five Indian cities[, not including Patna]. … The court case, now being watched by public health experts worldwide, is setting a precedent for many countries that are severely restricting and rationing the rollout of the drug… (Lakshmi, 1/15).