South Africa has one of the highest number of drug-resistant TB patients in the world, yet the country does not benefit from a donation programme that provides life-saving medicines for free.This is according to a Doctors without Borders report released today - World Tuberculosis Day.Bedaquiline is the first new TB drug in 50 years and has cured more than 75% of drug- resistant South Africans.Without bedaquiline, the cure rate drops to 40%.Bedaquiline was marketed at $3000 for a six-month course but Department of Health negotiations saw its manufacturer, Janssen, agreeing to charge South Africa R10000 a course.But soon after this, USAID and Janssen announced a donation programme which made more than 30 000 courses available for free to India and other countries over four years.According to Doctors without Borders, South Africa did not benefit from the donation.Janssen's Abeda Williams said South Africa had gone about accessing the drug the right way because the free donation was not sustainable.She said the R10,000 per treatment course is the lowest in the world.But Doctors Without Borders said the price limits the number of people who can receive it.At least 15,000 people get drug-resistant TB each year in this country.According to Williams, there are more than 2000 patients on the drug.Bedaquiline is not the only drug that South Africa is paying more for.Linezolid, which is used for the most severely resistant TB patients, is sold to the Global Fund, an NGO funded through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, for $5 (R75). But South Africa pays R655 for the drug.Doctors Without Borders called on pharmaceuticals Sanofi and Pfizer, which sell Linezolid, to drop their prices. Neither company responded to requests for comment.TB is a global epidemic with more than two billion people harbouring its latent infection and with more than 9 million active cases...