By Juliet Jacob Ochenje
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital on Wednesday announced plans to establish a platform that will dramatically increase access to childhood cancer medicines around the world.
The organisation made this statement public on its official Twitter handle @WHO.
The Global Platform for Access to Childhood Cancer Medicines, the first of its kind, will provide an uninterrupted supply of quality-assured childhood cancer medicines to low- and middle-income countries.
St. Jude is making a six-year, US$ 200 million investment to launch the platform, which will provide medicines at no cost to countries participating in the pilot phase. This is the largest financial commitment for a global effort in childhood cancer medicines to date.
Close to nine in ten children with cancer live in low and middle-income countries,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
“Survival in these countries is less than 30%, compared with 80% in high-income countries. This new platform, which builds on the success of the Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer launched with St. Jude in 2018, will help redress this unacceptable imbalance and give hope to many thousands of parents faced with the devastating reality of a child with cancer,” he stated.
Each year, an estimated 400, 000 children worldwide develop cancer. The majority of children living in low- and middle-income countries are unable to consistently obtain or afford cancer medicines. As a result, nearly 100 000 children die each year.
“The new platform aims to provide safe and effective cancer medicines to approximately 120 000 children between 2022 and 2027, with the expectation to scale up in future years. This platform will provide end-to-end support ̶ consolidating global demand to shape the market; assisting countries with the selection of medicines; developing treatment standards; and building information systems to track that effective care is being provided and to drive innovation.
