BIO Ventures commits to improve cancer awareness and treatment in Africa

AFRICA – BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH) has expanded access to U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved cancer drugs to treat an additional 10,000 African cancer patients over the next three years.

In collaboration with international pharmaceutical companies and U.S. cancer centers, BVGH will apply its demand-driven access approach to forecast drug needs, determine and align on budgets, co-develop patient access and payor models, and coordinate procurement of drugs from Port to Patient to ensure access to cancer drugs for an additional 10,000 cancer patients across the continent of Africa over the next three years.

BVGH has also committed to train an additional 5,000 African healthcare professionals in the management of cancer patients. BVGH will leverage its network of more than 30 U.S. academic cancer centers to engage and work with faculty to develop and customize training programs that address the needs and priorities of hospitals and healthcare professionals in countries in Africa.

Training programs will span on-site/hands-on practicums, international fellowships, and multi-week digital courses, to increase the knowledge and confidence of Africa’s cohort of oncology healthcare professionals.

The areas of focus will range from early cancer screening, detection and diagnostic pathology and imaging to safe pharmacy practices, treatment, and care over the next three years.

Training topics and programs will be determined by African Access Initiative (AAI) hospital teams and each hospital’s individual needs assessment.

In addition, pre-course surveys will be conducted with program registrants to refine the course materials and prepare trainers. Each training program will be evaluated to measure the impact and knowledge gained as well as to identify further training needs.

Cancer awareness campaign

BIO Ventures for Global Health, in collaboration with its partners, has launched awareness campaigns targeting cancer patients and their caregivers.

BVGH will produce campaigns involving the co-development of culturally appropriate and sensitive materials for dissemination through multiple, broad-reaching communication channels with an aim to reach 30 million individuals across the continent of Africa.

Through patient-focused brochures, digital resources, and radio and media programming, cancer treatment pathways will be demystified and local support services will be highlighted and made available to patients and caregivers to improve and ease the patient experience as they navigate their complex treatment journeys.

In that spirit, BVGH will forge five new African-led research projects. Working with African Access Initiative (AAI) partners, BVGH will implement cancer research projects that are determined and led by African oncologists and conducted in collaboration with U.S. cancer experts.

Through its African Consortium for Cancer Clinical Trials (AC3T) program, BVGH will facilitate five research projects, build capacity to conduct rigorous clinical research at 50 African sites, promote African primary investigator’s research interests on the AC3T platform, and coordinate the implementation of observational clinical studies.

In addition to building AC3T sites’ research capacity, BVGH will map the regulatory pathway in five AAI countries. All clinical studies involving cancer drugs will include the development of market access pathways by BVGH.

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