The first medicines were being delivered to Mongolia and Uzbekistan, the WHO said, with further shipments planned for Ecuador, Jordan, Nepal and Zambia, as part of the project’s pilot phase.

The treatments are expected to reach around 5,000 children with cancer this year across at least 30 hospitals in those six nations.

The WHO said that childhood cancer survival rates in low- and middle-income countries were often below 30 percent, compared with around 80 percent in high-income countries.

A further six countries have been invited to join the platform, which hopes to reach 50 countries in the next five to seven years, providing medicines for approximately 120,000 children.

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An estimated 400,000 children worldwide develop cancer every year, most of them living in resource-limited settings, the WHO said.

The WHO said cost-free provision would continue beyond the pilot phase, and the platform is working on developing its sustainability over the longer term.

The plan to establish the platform was first announced in December 2021.

It is a joint enterprise between the WHO and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee in the United States.

The non-profit pediatric treatment and research institution has committed $200 million to its launch, the WHO said.

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