Access to childhood cancer is inequitable between and within countries globally, resulting in hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths each year. Survival probabilities for children with cancer are greater than 80% in high-income countries and less than 30% in many low- and middle-income countries. One of the root causes for this inequity is variable access to health products. Further, there is global consensus on the need to accelerate product development that meets the needs of children with cancer in all settings.

 In 2018, working alongside key multi-sectoral stakeholders including its strategic partner, St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer was launched. The initiative is now being implemented in more than 30 countries globally. One of the pillars in the CureAll technical package is increasing availability of and innovation in childhood cancer products.

WHO childhood cancer team is pleased to be working with GAP-f to convene an optimization group and to develop medium- and long-term priorities for medicine development, accelerating access to optimal formulations in the context of fragmented markets.

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