Lessons Learned from the GeneXpert Tuberculosis Test Buy-Down
Treatment Action Group (TAG) released its latest policy brief: Advancing Access through Market Interventions: Lessons Learned from the GeneXpert Tuberculosis Test Buy-down.
As the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) and other stakeholders consider market interventions to support the development of rapid diagnostic tests for COVID-19 and to accelerate access to these tests in low- and middle-income countries, the 2012 buy-down of Cepheid’s Xpert MTB/RIF tuberculosis (TB) test provides helpful lessons learned.
TAG’s brief examines the background and unexpected consequences of the Xpert MTB/RIF buy-down; applies lessons learned to the ongoing development of COVID-19 diagnostic tests and efforts to scale up access to these tests; and provides recommendations and pro-access conditions that should be applied to R&D funding, buy-down, and other market intervention agreements for COVID-19 diagnostics.
Aimed at global health actors, this brief calls for market intervention agreements for COVID-19 diagnostics to include conditions that promote transparency, competition, COGS+ pricing models, and volume-based price adjustments; and that ensure commitment to equitable allocation based on need rather than country income and ability to pay.
To download the policy brief, click here.
Source: Treatment Action Group