<\/p>\n
An estimated 400 000 children and adolescents develop cancer annually, with almost 90% living in low-income and middle-income countries.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Survival remains below 30% in those countries, compared with more than 80% in many high-income countries. Limited access to quality-assured medicines and child-friendly formulations contributes to the survival gap.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The WHO invitation covers 12 essential childhood cancer medicines. Six require formulations designed for children, while another six face documented access and supply shortages.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Medicines requiring child-friendly formulations include cyclophosphamide, etoposide, mercaptopurine, methotrexate, procarbazine and temozolomide.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
WHO has developed product profiles outlining minimum and preferred requirements for those medicines. Requirements include age-appropriate dosing, acceptability, stability, safe handling, affordability and suitability for countries with limited healthcare resources.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Pegaspargase, asparaginase, preservative-free hydrocortisone, dactinomycin, vincristine and cytarabine were selected because of supply challenges identified through consultations with governments, healthcare professionals and technical experts.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The initiative brings together work by the Global Accelerator for Paediatric Formulations (GAP-f) and Global Platform for Access to Childhood Cancer Medicines.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
WHO and St Jude Children\u2019s Research Hospital established the Global Platform in 2021, working with the United Nations Children\u2019s Fund and Pan American Health Organisation Strategic Fund. The programme is expected to reach about 120 000 children. \u201cThis first EOI is another major step towards ensuring that children with cancer can receive the quality-assured medicines they need, wherever they live,\u201d WHO Management of Noncommunicable Diseases Unit Head Alarcos Cieza said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Cieza said the initiative connected country-level supply requirements with WHO technical and quality-assurance systems, creating a pathway for priority medicines to reach children.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Manufacturers can now submit eligible products for assessment, potentially expanding the range of quality-assured medicines available for national and international procurement. \u201cThe EOI demonstrates the value of an end-to-end approach to paediatric medicines,\u201d GAP-f Lead Martina Penazzato said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Penazzato said the process had moved from identifying treatment requirements and developing product profiles to establishing a regulatory pathway capable of encouraging manufacturers to develop suitable medicines.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–WHO\/ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":43935,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-44720","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The World Health Organisation (WHO) has invited manufacturers to submit childhood cancer medicines for evaluation under the agency\u2019s Prequalification Programme for the first time.","published_date":"","news_description":"The World Health Organisation (WHO) has invited manufacturers to submit childhood cancer medicines for evaluation under the agency\u2019s Prequalification Programme for the first time.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44721,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44720\/revisions\/44721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=44720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}