Event highlights
Regional Meeting on Improving Access and Availability of Medicines for TB and DR-TB in Europe
The third regional meeting on improving access and availability of medicines for tuberculosis (TB) and drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) in Europe convened participants from 26 Member States (19 in person, 7 online), along with key partners including the European Commission, Médecins Sans Frontières, the Stop TB Partnership and the TB Europe Coalition.
“This gathering serves as a unique opportunity for us to highlight that TB, like other communicable diseases, does not recognize borders and affects both rich and poor,” said Mr Robb Butler, Director of WHO/Europe’s Division of Communicable Diseases, Environment and Health, as he opened the 2-day meeting.
The meeting addressed the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Europe, particularly the impact of the war in Ukraine. The war has led to an increase in TB and DR-TB notifications, especially among foreign-born individuals, including refugees.
Ukraine bears the second-highest burden of DR-TB in the WHO European Region, and the conflict has further complicated TB control efforts. Despite progress towards TB elimination, the increase in DR-TB cases observed in recent years poses a significant public health challenge.
One of the primary concerns discussed at the meeting was the high cost of DR-TB treatment regimens in European Union (EU) countries compared to middle-income countries in eastern Europe and central Asia. The elevated prices of WHO-recommended medicines, such as bedaquiline, pretomanid, linezolid, clofazimine and delamanid, alongside restrictive financial reimbursement structures, limit access to effective treatment.
Although WHO has recommended short, all-oral, 6-month regimens since 2022, their widespread adoption remains constrained due to financial barriers and rising DR-TB notifications.
Key highlights from the meeting
The meeting provided an important opportunity to:
- advance the TB agenda – participants agreed on the need for further joint actions to improve access and availability of medicines for TB and DR-TB as an important component of TB elimination in the Region;
- review the state of access to TB medicines – a series of presentations shared the findings of a comprehensive survey launched in autumn 2024 to assess access across the western part of the Region;
- highlight global health security – discussions emphasized TB as a cross-border health threat and its elimination as a key component of global health security, antimicrobial resistance strategies and universal health coverage;
- identify actionable steps – participants worked to define concrete national and EU-level actions to enhance access to DR-TB medicines, and identified WHO’s engagement as essential in moving this agenda forward; and
- focus on commitments and advocacy – participants were encouraged to advocate for TB priorities at the upcoming hearing to develop the second European Programme of Work, 2026–2030, scheduled for 7 March 2025, ensuring that communicable diseases remain central to national and EU-level policy discussions.
In her closing remarks, Dr Natasha Azzopardi-Muscat, Director of WHO/Europe’s Division of Country Health Policies and Systems, underscored the need for collaboration and expressed WHO/Europe’s commitment to facilitating information sharing among Member States.
This meeting reinforced the importance of collaboration, shared learning and coordinated action to improve TB and DR-TB outcomes across Europe. The Division of Communicable Diseases, Environment and Health and the Division of Country Health Policies and Systems continue to play a pivotal role in driving this work forward.
Event notice
28–29 January 2025 | Copenhagen, Denmark
WHO/Europe will convene the third Regional Meeting on Improving Access and Availability of Medicines for Tuberculosis (TB) and Drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) in Europe. The purpose of this meeting is to assess priorities and progress and collectively work towards effective national and supranational solutions to enhance access and availability of medicines for TB and DR-TB.
A low incidence of TB and the resulting low demand for TB medicines in Europe has created commercial and practical challenges for medicine producers and health systems, leading to a limited availability and high cost of TB medicines. This has impacted the ability of people to access and afford treatment, prompting the need for urgent attention.
The third Regional Meeting comes on the back of similar ones held in 2022 and 2024. The objectives of this meeting are to:
- review the survey (see below) findings to clarify the priority challenges faced by WHO/Europe Member States;
- agree on a priority list of common challenges that could be ameliorated through coordinated action;
- enrich the understanding and viability of solutions through leveraging a broader pool of expertise;
- facilitate opportunities for peer-learning and problem-solving at the national level (“policy clinic”); and
- clarify and coordinate key European-level “asks” to partner EU agencies.
Efforts to address gaps in access to TB medicines
Over the past five years, WHO/Europe has been working with Member States to address the challenges in access to TB medicines, with meetings convened in June 2022 and June 2024 to better understand the situation across the WHO European Region. This effort led to the creation of the WHO/Europe TB Medicine Coordination Platform to further support Member States to exchange information about the challenges in their countries, such as those related to the availability and cost of TB medicines, and explore joint actions to resolve them.
In November 2024, a comprehensive survey of TB medicine availability in the Region was launched by WHO/Europe in collaboration with other European Union health agencies. This generated insights from 26 Member States and is expected to guide future efforts.