Select TB patients to get free drugs as part of trial

A select group of patients suffering from multi drug resistant (MDR) and extensively drug resistant (XDR) tuberculosis in the city will be given free doses of Delaminid as part of the drug’s phase III trials.

Patients from the rest of the state are not eligible for the programme which also covers Punjab, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Odisha, Kerala and Lakshadweep. “I have received a positive response from the central TB cell,” said Dr Daksha Shah, chief of BMC’s TB cell, who had first written to the central TB division.

Sources said drugs will be received by the end of the month. Selected patients will receive 100 mg Delamanid tablets (two tablets of 50 mg) orally twice a day for 24 weeks (6 months) in combination with a regimen of second-line TB drugs. A sixmonth course will cost the government over Rs 1.5 lakh per patient.