St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital believes no child should die in the dawn of life.
That means every child, everywhere.
Access to safe and effective medicines is a barrier to cancer care worldwide. Many hospitals struggle to reliably access affordable, high-quality medications for their children with cancer.
Estimated childhood cancer 5-year net survival by country (2015-2019). The lack of consistent access to essential childhood cancer medicines is an important factor in a lower survival rate in many low- and middle-income countries. SOURCE: Ward ZJ, Yeh JM, Bhakta N, Frazier AL, Girardi F, Atun R. Global childhood cancer survival estimates and priority-setting: a simulation-based analysis. Lancet Oncol. 2019;20(7):972–83.
The Challenge
Availability
of essential cancer medicines around the globe is inconsistent due to supply and demand issues and complicated regulations.
Quality
of medicines is threatened when governments and administrations favor lowest-cost bids.
Cost
of childhood cancer medicines is often excluded from budgets, creating financial hardship for families in low- and middle- income countries.
71% of low-income countries report general shortages in cancer medicines. At the 70th World Health Assembly, global health leaders adopted a new resolution. It called for better access to essential medicines and other measures for all with cancer.
The Solution
Introducing the Global Platform for Access to Childhood Cancer Medicines
St. Jude and World Health Organization (WHO) are creating the platform to provide children with cancer with an uninterrupted supply of quality cancer medicines.
The platform will bring St. Jude, WHO, governments, the pharmaceutical industry, non-governmental organizations and the nonprofit sector together to ensure quality and effective medicines are available to treat childhood cancer. This effort will increase global visibility and predictability of the market for childhood cancer medicines.
In 6 years, approximately 120,000 children in low- and middle- income countries could benefit.