August 29, 2026 11:08 pm (IST)

Make this your homepage

Health

VHP breaks silence on Durga Puja ‘guidelines’: No blanket non-veg ban, clarifies stand on theme pandals amid backlash | No non-veg near pandals, no ‘distorted’ idols: VHP’s Durga Puja guidelines spark Bengal debate | ‘Either they will stay, or we will’: Suvendu Adhikari's warning to Jadavpur students over 'Azadi' slogans | 'Inaccurate reports': Penguin India denies dropping Sonia Gandhi memoir | ‘Clean my shoes’: Greater Noida woman detained after alleged abuse, assault of security guards | 21-year-old model stabbed to death in Delhi; gym trainer arrested after encounter | Abhishek Banerjee, Derek O'Brien, other TMC leaders booked after Camac Street clash with Kolkata Police | Kanpur plane crash: Training aircraft crashes near Ganges, two pilots killed | Big IT boost for Bengal: LTM opens global delivery & AI centre in Kolkata's New Town | 21-year-old Delhi model found stabbed at Delhi home, gym trainer accused of killing her

Government to roll out new drug for treatment of drug-resistant TB

India Blooms News Service | | Mar 21, 2016, at 08:09 pm

New Delhi, Mar 21 (IBNS) The central government is launching a drug called Bedaquiline on Monday for the treatment of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) and extensively drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR TB), according to media reports.

Dubbed a 'miracle drug', Bedaquiline (trade name Sirturo) is the first TB drug to be approved by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in over 40 years.

The project is part of a coordinated programme between the government and Johnson & Johnson and has been rolled out under the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme; Janssen, a pharma unit under Johnson & Johnson has manufactured the drug.

The drug will be made available in six public hospitals in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Guwahati and Ahmedabad, according to reports.

In an exclusive interview to Times of India, Sanjiv Navangul, Janssen India MD, said, "We are ready with the roll-out of the drug through the government-run control programme, for which 600 patients will be enrolled across the country, over the next six to nine months, after the required tests. Upon the review of clinical data after two years, the access programme will be expanded nationwide."

As per World Health Organisation (WHO) Global Tuberculosis Report 2015, deaths due to TB were estimated in India to be 2,20,000 in 2014, which is higher than any other country.

#Food and Drug Administration # World Health Organisation # Johnson & Johnson

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.

India
International

Related Images

CMRI Hospital celebrates Patients' Experience Week with Walkathon Oct 09, 2025, at 06:21 pm

Kolkata: BITM hosts an interactive session with students to observe Shubhanshu Shukla's return to Earth Jul 16, 2025, at 07:45 pm

West Bengal government airlifts ailing Gangasagar pilgrims to Kolkata Jan 13, 2025, at 12:45 pm