The Ministry of Health of Mongolia announced the first arrival of essential childhood cancer medicines at the National Center for Maternal and Child Health delivered through the international efforts via the Global Platform for Access to Childhood Cancer Medicines, a partnership between St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (St. Jude) and the World Health Organization (WHO). This partnership ensures that Mongolia granted an uninterrupted supply of quality-assured medicines for children with cancer for five years.
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Adviser to the Minister of Health, Doctor L.Tumurbaatar highlighted in his speech that provision of childhood cancer care requires comprehensive measures including continuous treatment with quality assured medicines, regular monitoring of the children with cancer, and social interaction of the children with peers, that needs to be implemented in collaboration with healthcare workers, children suffering from cancers, and their parents and caregivers.
Improving access to the quality cancer medicines will improve the overall quality of cancer care, and the curative and survival rate of children with cancer, that will lead to betterment in their quality of lives.
The first-of-its-kind platform aims to provide an uninterrupted supply of quality-assured childhood cancer medicines, at no cost to low- and middle-income countries participating in the pilot phase, where childhood cancer survival rates are often less than 30%, far below the rates in high-income countries.
“The challenges of increasing childhood cancer survival rates must be addressed from multiple angles,” said Carlos Rodriguez-Galindo, MD, Director of St. Jude Global. “This partnership tackles these challenges through a number of avenues, including strengthening supply chains, addressing workforce gaps and increasing advocacy for children with cancer. More children will receive better care at an international level because of this intricate approach.”
Mongolia became a focus country of the WHO Global Initiative of Childhood Cancer in December 2020 and joined the Global Platform in April 2023. There is one main hospital with dedicated unit for children with cancer in Mongolia with five paediatric haematologists and oncologists, treating approximately 100-120 new patients aged 0-19 years each year.
St. Jude and WHO announced the platform in 2021 to ensure children around the world have access to lifesaving treatments. The platform brings together governments, the pharmaceutical industry, and non-governmental organizations to collaborate in a unique model focused on creating solutions for children with cancer.
WHO Representative, Dr Socorro Escalante, said, "WHO and partners are committed to improve equitable access to childhood cancer medicines, with the most vulnerable as our highest priority. Our common goal is not to only improve survival rates from cancer, but to give the best opportunity for children affected with cancer to live healthy and happy lives and pursue their future.”
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The platform is set to become the largest initiative of its kind, with the goal of reaching 50 nations over the next 5 to 7 years, eventually providing medicines to treat approximately 120 000 children with cancer in resource-limited countries and significantly reducing mortality rates. The Platform will continue to expand, adding six additional countries in 2025.
The platform provides end-to-end support, from consolidating global demand to shaping the market to assisting countries with the selection of medicine and developing treatment standards. It is a transformative model for the broader global health community working together to address global health challenges, focused on children and noncommunicable diseases.
UNICEF partnered with WHO and St Jude as procurement agency to support the successful delivery of medicines to Mongolia.
UNICEF Representative, Evariste Kouassi-Komlan, in his speech, underscored the importance of uninterrupted, quality education and medical services for the kids during their hospital stay. He said, “…UNICEF Mongolia team has been providing comprehensive assistance, which includes setting up a fully furnished study room with visiting teachers from the respective Life-Long Learning Center, renovation of chemotherapy medicine preparation room, and now, along with our partners, delivering the actual medicine …”