KATHMANDU, MARCH 27

The Ministry of Health and Population-Nepal today signed an agreement with the World Health Organization (WHO) to join the Global Platform for Access to Childhood Cancer Medicines (GPACCM), an initiative by St Jude Global and WHO to increase access to lifesaving childhood cancer medicines in low-and middle-income countries.

As a member of the platform, Nepal will receive 35 types of childhood cancer medicines at free of cost for four years. WHO will provide technical support to strengthen the supply chain system and health care facilities to ensure the effective distribution of the medicines. UNICEF is the procurement partner of the GPACCM Platform and will be involved in procurement of the medicines and delivering them till the port of entry, according to the statement issued by WHO on Wednesday.

The first batch of medicines is expected to arrive in the country by the third quarter of 2024 and will be used for treatment of childhood cancer in the four participating health institutions namely: Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital, BP Koirala Cancer Hospital, Kanti Children's Hospital, Patan Hospital, and it will be expanded to the shared care center hospitals as need arises in the future, it added.

'Each year, an estimated 900 children are diagnosed with cancer in Nepal. However, only about one-third of childhood cancer cases receive treatment, primarily due to constraints such as limited access to services and resource scarcity, resulting in increased deaths,' said Dr Rajesh Sambhajirao Pandav, WHO Representative to Nepal. 'This innovative platform will help enhance access to cancer care by addressing medicine availability issues and ensure that children who need essential cancer medications can access them, while also helping reduce the financial burden placed upon parents and families of children with cancer.'

Nepal is one of the six countries worldwide and the only one in the WHO South-East Asia Region selected by the GPACCM platform to participate in this novel initiative.

'Today is an important day for Nepal. With the signing of this agreement, we have formally joined the GPACCM platform, which will make a great difference in improving treatment of children suffering from cancer in the country. While initially, the medicines received through the platform will be provided to four government hospitals, we will see how we can expand provision to other hospitals on a need basis, ' said Dr Roshan Pokhrel, Secretary, Ministry of Health and Population.

Nepal stepped into the global spotlight in 2020 as a focus country for the Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer (GICC) which aims to improve outcomes for children with cancer around the world and reach at least 60% survival rate for children with cancer by 2030. At present, survival rate of children with cancer is only 20-30% in low and middle-income countries compared to over 80% in high-income countries, WHO said.