(3 Minutes Read)
The Pfizer Foundation has provided a USD 15 million investment to a three-year initiative to improve women’s lives with breast cancer in Rwanda, Ghana, and Tanzania. The grant funding will be provided to global health nonprofit organisations, such as Jhpiego and Partners in Health, to support and scale community-and country-led efforts.
These are developed in collaboration with the ministries of health to address barriers to timely diagnosis, treatment, and care in these countries. The initiative involves three main approaches, including down-staging breast cancer diagnosis to ensure early detection and more treatable stages by promoting community-based screening for education. It is also to enhance and make diagnostic services more accessible at provincial and district-level facilities and integrate screening into primary care services.
To accelerate access to treatment in support of country-led efforts, Jhpiego and health partners would collaborate with regional health systems to shorten the time between diagnosis and treatment by enhancing patient navigation and referral services through the establishment of satellite clinics.
The investment would also focus on driving global engagements and learning with implementation research and evidence generation to strengthen understanding of effective breast cancer interventions, inform future investments and share learnings. Madam Caroline Roan, the President, The Pfizer Foundation, and Senior Vice President of Global Health and Social Impact, Pfizer, said through the initiative, they were exploring and scaling new ways to ensure women with the disease in Rwanda, Ghana and Tanzania had equitable access to quality care.
More than 2.3 million patients were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022 alone, and although the five-year survival rate in high-income countries exceeded 90 per cent, it averaged just 40 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa. Studies show that women in low- and middle-income countries were typically diagnosed in advanced stages of the disease and may face multiple barriers to care.
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The initiative builds on Pfizer’s commitment to creating a world where people with cancer can live better and longer lives. The vision of Pfizer’s Accord for a Healthier World aims to expand access to quality care and close the health equity gap by enabling access to Pfizer’s full portfolio of medicines and vaccines for which Pfizer holds global rights on a not-for-profit basis to 45 lower-income countries around the world, including Rwanda, Ghana, and Tanzania.
The mission of The Pfizer Foundation is to help build healthier communities around the world with investments in community-led partnerships and solutions to address complex global health challenges, respond to urgent health needs and empower Pfizer colleagues to make an impact where they live, work and beyond.
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