World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a new platform providing cost-free cancer medicines for thousands of children living in low- and middle-income countries to improve lagging survival rates. The first medicines were being delivered to Mongolia and Uzbekistan with further shipments planned for Ecuador, Jordan, Nepal, and Zambia as part of the project's pilot phase.

World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a new platform providing cost-free cancer medicines for thousands of children living in low- and middle-income countries to improve lagging survival rates. The first medicines were being delivered to Mongolia and Uzbekistan with further shipments planned for Ecuador, Jordan, Nepal, and Zambia as part of the project's pilot phase.

The treatments are expected to reach around 5,000 children with cancer this year across at least 30 hospitals in those six nations. Countries in the pilot phase will receive an uninterrupted supply of quality-assured childhood cancer medicines at no cost. The WHO said childhood cancer survival rates in low- and middle-income countries were often below 30% compared to around 80% in high-income nations.

For too long, children with cancer have lacked access to life-saving medications, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. Six more countries have been invited to join the platform; they hope to reach 50 countries in the next five to seven years providing medicines for approximately 120,000 children.

An estimated 400,000 children worldwide develop cancer every year, most living in resource-limited settings. It is estimated that 70% of the children from these settings die from cancer due to factors such as lack of appropriate treatment, treatment disruptions or low-quality medications, it said. The WHO also said cost-free provision would continue beyond the pilot phase; they are working on developing their sustainability over the longer term. The plan to establish the platform was first announced in December 2021. It is a joint enterprise between the WHO and St Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, United States.

The nonprofit pediatric treatment institution has committed $200 million to its launch, the WHO said

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