The Ministry of Health and Population on Thursday signed an agreement with the World Health Organization (WHO) to join the Global Platform for Access to Childhood Cancer Medicines (GPACCM).

The platform is 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 free of cost for four years,” reads a statement by the WHO.

The UN health body will provide technical support to strengthen the supply chain system and health care facilities to ensure the effective distribution of medicines. UNICEF is the platform's procurement partner and will be involved in purchasing medicines and delivering them to the port of entry.

The first batch of medicines is expected to arrive in the country by the third quarter of 2024 [starting from July] and will be used for the treatment of childhood cancer in the four participating health institutions: Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital, BP Koirala Cancer Hospital, Kanti Children’s Hospital, Patan Hospital. There are plans to expand it to other hospitals in the future as needed.

“Each year, an estimated 900 children are diagnosed with cancer in Nepal. However, only about a 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 the treatment of children suffering from cancer in the country. 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 at the 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 percent survival rate for children with cancer by 2030. At present, the survival rate of children with cancer is only 20–30 percent in low and middle-income countries compared to over 80 percent in high-income countries.

The Global Platform for Access to Childhood Cancer Medicines, the first of its kind, was launched in 2021 as part of the Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer. Developed jointly by St Judes Global and the WHO, the platform aims to provide an uninterrupted supply of quality-assured cancer medicines to approximately 120,000 children in low- and middle-income countries between 2022 and 2024, with the expectation to scale up in future years.