'Pure price-gouging': Advocates celebrate price drop of critical TB test but say Big Pharma needs to do more

Every 20 seconds, someone dies of tuberculosis. But health advocates and experts hope that a newly announced reduction in the cost of TB testing might change that.

On Tuesday, several TB-focused organizations announced a major victory after the multinational conglomerate Danaher Corp. cut the cost of a key test — for TB infection and resistance to a commonly used drug — by 20 per cent.

Danaher has also committed to make no profit on the sale of this specific TB test to low- and middle-income countries going forward, and to a yearly third-party assessment to ensure that remains the case.

It's the first time the cost of the test has been reduced in more than 13 years, says Stijn Deborggraeve, diagnostics adviser for the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Access Campaign.

"Five million additional tests can be procured with this lower price," said the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in a statement.

John Green, a best-selling author, philanthropist and TB advocate, said he's "very happy" — but still sounded a cautious note.

"When good things happen, you want to celebrate," he said. "But at the same time, I'm conscious of the fact that 1.6 million people are going to die of TB this year."

TB is the deadliest disease in human history and has killed an estimated one billion people in the last 200 years. Caused by the bacterium M. tuberculosis, TB is curable in virtually all cases, and has been for 70 years, thanks to powerful tests, medications and treatment regimes.

But according to experts, pharmaceutical companies are overcharging for critical treatments, developed with hundreds of millions of dollars in public funding, locking out those who need them most.

The fact that 1.6 million still die of the disease every year is a testament to what happens when you put profit over patients, says Green.

"The real cause of tuberculosis in the 21st century is not a bacteria," said Green. "It's human-built systems. It's human choice."

On Friday, world leaders are set to meet in New York for the second United Nations High Level Meeting on TB. Advocates and experts hope to see promises of progress, not just from governments, but corporations as well.

"We can choose a world where no one dies of TB, just as we are currently choosing a world where 1.6 million people do," Green said.

TB is an airborne infectious disease that typically infects the lungs, but can colonize almost any part of the body. A third of all people globally are estimated to have a latent TB infection and more than 10 million get sick every year.