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Business Daily: Resistant drugs

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14/02/2013

Resistant drugs

BBC World Service - Business Daily, Resistant drugs

Are drug companies doing enough to combat killer disease that no longer respond to drugs

Some strains of infectious diseases no longer respond to drugs. Health officials want action but are the big drug companies up to the task?

Some strains of infectious diseases, like tuberculosis, no longer respond to antibiotic drugs. Dr Danilo Lo Fo Wong, senior Adviser on Antimicrobial Resistance for the World Health Organisation, says increased levels of resistance are a cause for serious concern and require global action. But are the global pharmaceutical companies up to the task? We ask the chief medical officer GlaxoSmithKline, James Shannon. And we hear from the front-line of the battle against the new strains. Dr Jayant Banavaliker is a TB consultant who is Chair of TB-Alert India, and he says he's struggling to treat thousands of new TB patients in Delhi.

(Photo: Indian nurses hold placards on World Tuberculosis day. Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

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