Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to promote the World Health Organisation's BPaLM/BPaL regimen to treat multidrug resistant TB.

The UK's funding to the TB Alliance (around £70 million over 6 years) contributed to the development of the BPaLM/BPAL regimen. Our £1 billion contribution to the Global Fund is supporting countries to use BPaLM/BPAL for the treatment of multi-drug resistant TB and our funding to the Clinton Health Access Initiative has provided technical support to help countries introduce the regimen at optimal prices. In addition, our support to MedAccess helped secure a 34 per cent reduction in the price of one of the critical drugs - pretomanid - used in the regimen.