The World Health Organization (WHO) and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have begun distributing critical cancer drugs to pediatric patients in two of six pilot countries through the new Global Platform for Access to Childhood Cancer Medicines.
Background
Every year, about 400,000 children across the world develop cancer. The majority of these patients, living in resource-limited settings, are unable to consistently obtain or afford cancer treatments. Estimates have suggested that up to 70% of the pediatric patients from these settings may die from cancer as a result of factors such as a lack of appropriate treatment, treatment disruptions, or low-quality drugs. In low- and middle-income countries, the cancer survival rates among pediatric patients are often below 30%, significantly lower than those in high-income countries.
“For too long, [pediatric patients] with cancer have lacked access to life-saving medicines,” emphasized Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, MSc, PhD, Director-General of the WHO.
Overview of the New Platform
The WHO and St. Jude announced the platform in 2021 to ensure that pediatric patients around the world would have access to life-saving treatments. The platform was designed to bring together governments, the pharmaceutical industry, and nongovernmental organizations in a unique collaborative model focused on creating solutions for pediatric patients with cancer. The codesign approach could help address the broader needs of national stakeholders, with a focus on capacity building and long-term sustainability. Providing comprehensive end-to-end support, from consolidating global demand to shaping the market, the platform assists countries with drug selection and developing treatment standards.
The platform is currently delivering cancer drugs to patients residing in Mongolia and Uzbekistan, but next shipments are planned for Ecuador, Jordan, Nepal, and Zambia. Six additional countries have been formally invited to join the platform.
In the pilot phase of the Global Platform for Access to Childhood Cancer Medicines, countries will receive an uninterrupted supply of quality-assured cancer drugs at no cost. The treatments are expected to reach approximately 5,000 pediatric patients with cancer across at least 30 hospitals in these countries within 2025.
The WHO and St. Jude hope their collaborative initiative can reach 50 countries in the next 5 to 7 years, aiming to eventually provide drugs for the treatment of approximately 120,000 pediatric patients with cancer in low- and middle-income countries and significantly reduce cancer mortality rates.
Conclusions
“This unique partnership between [the] WHO and St. Jude is working to provide quality-assured cancer medicines to pediatric hospitals in low- and middle-income countries. [The] WHO is proud to be part of this joint initiative with St. Jude, bringing health and hope to children around the world,” underscored Dr. Ghebreyesus.
The initiative represents a transformative model for the broader global health community working to tackle health challenges, particularly for pediatric patients and noncommunicable diseases.
“A child’s chances of surviving cancer are largely determined by where they are born, making this one of the starkest disparities in global health care,” underlined James R. Downing, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer of St. Jude. “St. Jude was founded on [the] dream that no child should die in the dawn of life. By developing this platform, we believe this dream can someday be achieved for [pediatric patients] stricken by cancer, irrespective of where they live,” he concluded.
