J&J expands global access to TB drug as popular novelist joins advocacy campaign

Advocates have been fighting Johnson & Johnson for years over a patent on a lifesaving tuberculosis pill. On Thursday, they won a partial victory as the United Nations-affiliated group STOP TB announced an agreement to make cheaper generics available across dozens of low- and middle-income countries with high rates of disease.

The deal had been in the works for months and was signed in June, according to STOP TB global drug facility chief Brenda Waning. But its announcement appeared to be sped up by a pressure campaign this week from an unusual source: novelist and YouTube star John Green, who, in consultation with activists, posted a video Tuesday accusing J&J of keeping the drug out of the hands of millions of people.

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