End of the Bedaquiline patent – a crucial development for moving forward affordable drugs, diagnostics, and vaccines for infectious diseases in low- and middle-income countries

• Eskild Petersen,
• David S. Hui,
• Jean B. Nachega,
• Francine Ntoumi,
• Delia Goletti,
• Eleni Aklillu,
• Avinash Sharma,
• Thomas Nyirenda,
• Dorothy Yeboah-Manu,
• Giovanni Satta,
• Christopher da Costa,
• Esam I. Azhar,
• Moses Bockarie,
• Seif Al-Abri,
• Timothy D. McHugh,
• Alfonso J. Rodriguez-Morales,
• George M Varghese,
• Alimuddin Zumla

Affiliations

Eskild Petersen

Institute for Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Aarhus, Denmark; European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Task Force for Emerging Infections, Basel, Switzerland; International Society for Infectious Diseases; Correspondence author.

David S. Hui

Department of Medicine & Therapeutics and Stanley Ho Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong, China

Jean B. Nachega

Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA; Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences Cape Town, South Africa

Francine Ntoumi

Fondation Congolaise pour la Recherche Médicale, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo; Institute of Tropical Medicine, University of Tübingen, Germany

Delia Goletti

International Society for Infectious Diseases; Translational Research Unit, National Institute for Infectious Diseases Lazzaro Spallanzani- Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IRCCS), 00149 Rome, Italy

Eleni Aklillu

Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden

Avinash Sharma

Department of Biotechnology National Centre for Cell Science, Pune, India

Thomas Nyirenda

European Developing Countries Clinical rials partnership (EDCTP) Africa Office, Cape Town, South Africa

Dorothy Yeboah-Manu

Bacteriology Department, Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, University of Ghana, Ghana

Giovanni Satta

Department of Microbiology, UCL Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom

Christopher da Costa

Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, Washington, DC, USA

Esam I. Azhar

Special Infectious Agents Unit BSL-3, King Fahd Medical Research Center, and Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Moses Bockarie

International Society for Infectious Diseases; European Developing Countries Clinical rials partnership (EDCTP) Africa Office, Cape Town, South Africa; School of Community Health Sciences, Njala University, Bo, Sierra Leone

Seif Al-Abri

Directorate General for Disease Surveillance and Control, Ministry of Health, Muscat, Oman

Timothy D. McHugh

Centre for Clinical Microbiology, Division of Infection and Immunity, University College London, London, UK

Alfonso J. Rodriguez-Morales

Master's Program of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Universidad Científica del Sur, Lima, Peru

George M Varghese

Department of Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Christian Medical College, Vellore, India

Alimuddin Zumla

Department of Infection, Division of Infection and Immunity, Centre for Clinical Microbiology, University College London and NIHR Biomedical Research, Centre, University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London NW1 OPE, UK