Pharma Joins Atomic Energy Agency On Cancer Treatment Training In Poor Countries

Seeking to address the growing issue of cancer, and in particular the lack of access to diagnosis and treatment in low and middle-income countries, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have entered into a collaboration.

IFPMA said in a press release that it will support the IAEA Programme of Action for Cancer Therapy (PACT).

This is the first collaboration of its kind and “will open new avenues for joint public-private efforts to curb cancer,” according to the release

The collaboration, announced on 3 February, is expected to focus initially on stepping up the IAEA’s Virtual University for Cancer Control, which is an e-learning platform providing health professionals with free training across all states of cancer care, according to an IAEA press release.

During a pilot phase 500 African health professionals were trained in Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia, the release said, and the training is now expected to extend to 33 sub-Saharan African countries.

According to the IAEA, the new collaboration also foresees “support for a joint project between the IAEA, the World Health Organization and the IARC [International Agency for Research on Cancer] to help countries devise and implement targeted cancer control programmes.”