Because of the practical and, in particular, the financial scale of the program needed, the NCI decided to seek association with a pharmaceutical company, and in August 1989, it published a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) offering its current stock and supply from current bark stocks, and proprietary access to the data so far collected, to a company willing to commit to providing the funds to collect further raw material, isolate taxol, and fund a large proportion of clinical trials. In the words of Goodman and Welsh, authors of a substantial scholarly book on taxol, "The NCI was thinking, not of collaboration, ... but of a hand-over of taxol (and its problems)".Although the offer was widely advertised, only four companies responded to the CRADA, including the American firm Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS),
which was selected as the partner in December 1989. The choice of BMS later became controversial and was the subject of Congressional hearings in 1991 and 1992. While it seems clear the NCI had little choice but to seek a commercial partner, there was also controversy about the terms of the deal, eventually leading to a report by the General Accounting Office in 2003, which concluded the NIH had failed to ensure value for money. In related CRADAs with the USDA and Department of the Interior,  Bristol-Myers Squibb was given exclusive first refusal on all Federal supplies of Taxus brevifolia. This exclusive contract lead to some criticism for giving BMS a "cancer monopoly".
Bedaquiline, sold under the brand name Sirturo, is a medication used to treat active tuberculosis. Specifically, it is used to treat multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) along with other medications for tuberculosis. It is used by mouth.Common side effects include nausea, joint pains, headaches, and chest pain. Serious side effects include QT prolongation, liver dysfunction, and an increased risk of death. While harm during pregnancy has not been found, it has not been well studied in this population. It is in the diarylquinoline antimycobacterial class of medications. It works by blocking the ability of M. tuberculosis to make adenosine 5-triphosphate (ATP).Bedaquiline was approved for medical use in the United States in 2012. It is on the World Health Organizations List of Essential Medicines. The cost for six months is approximately US$900 in low-income countries, US$3,000 in middle-income countries, and US$30,000 in high-income countries.The public sector invested US$455–747 million in developing bedaquiline. This is thought to be 1.6× to 5.1× what the owner, Janssen Biotech, invested (estimated at US$90–240 million). If capitalized and risk-adjusted, these costs become US$647–1,201 million and US$292–772 million, respectively.