The procurement landscape of pediatric tuberculosis treatment: a Global Drug Facility perspective

Abstract

Simple, quality-assured, child-friendly formulations of existing first-line anti-tuberculosis (TB) drugs in the correct dosages are now becoming available. Efforts are currently underway by the TB Alliance, the World Health Organization (WHO), and its partners to make appropriate medicines available to treat children diagnosed with TB. The functioning of the current market and the distribution pathways in pediatric TB drugs now require characterization and understanding in order to develop appropriate strategies for delivery of these and other future pediatric TB medicines. The Stop TB Partnership's Global Drug Facility (GDF) plays a major role in supplying pediatric TB medications worldwide. GDF is considered to be the largest procurer of pediatric TB treatment and the largest supplier to national TB programs of quality pediatric drugs. Between 2007 and 2013, the GDF delivered more than 580,000 treatments to children in over 50 countries, 14 of which are among the 22 high TB burden countries. We analyzed this data set in the context of WHO estimates of pediatric TB as well as other available information to assess the functioning of the current market, lessons learnt from the GDF experience in the market, and opportunities for future products