Shorter six-month DR-TB treatment cheaper, more effective: ICMR study

An ICMR study has found that the six-month all-oral treatment regimens for multidrug-resistant and rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis are cost-effective and offer improved health outcomes compared to the longer treatment plans currently used in India.

The economic evaluation conducted by ICMR's National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis (NIRT) was published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research (IJMR).

It assessed the cost-effectiveness of the shorter bedaquiline-based regimens -- BPaL (bedaquiline, pretomanid and linezolid) and BPaLM (with moxifloxacin) -- in comparison with the nine-to-11-month and the 18-to 20-month-long bedaquiline-containing treatment plans used under the National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP).

The analysis revealed that the BPaL regimen is more effective against multidrug-resistant and rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis and, at the same time, more economical.

For each additional quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained, the health system spends Rs 37