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History repeats itself

MedGenome has a silver bullet for TB diagnostics, but no gun

India—home to the largest number of people living with drug-resistant TB—now has a first-of-its-kind test to diagnose TB drug resistance fast and with precision. But like the two diagnostic tests before it, SPIT SEQ must now figure out how to sell to millions

17/09/19

Suraksha P

India’s 2.8 million TB patients received a rare dose of good news in August—an indigenous, more thorough and accurate test for TB

But SPIT SEQ’s path to the mass market won’t be easy. At Rs 7,500, it’s close to 10X more expensive than existing diagnostic tools like TrueNat and GeneXpert

It took TrueNat years to get approval to become part of the national TB programme. SPIT SEQ, though, is from the stable of Sequoia-funded MedGenome

With deep-pocketed backers and a huge potential market the world over, SPIT SEQ could still have a bright future

TB-final-1920x1080.jpg

August saw two major milestones for diagnosing and curing extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, or XDR TB—the most drug-resistant of TB strains. On 14 August, the US drug regulator approved a new drug—Pretomanid—only the third new antibiotic developed to fight TB in over half a century.

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