Today, the Pfizer Foundation announced a new $10 million, three-year investment under its Action & Impact: A Cancer Care Initiative to increase access to prompt diagnosis, treatment, and care for breast cancer. The Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH) in Kenya and Innovations in Healthcare in collaboration with the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) in Ethiopia will both benefit from this grant. By encouraging early detection and assisting in removing obstacles that impede or delay women’s access to treatment, the partners, in collaboration with national ministries of health, aim to enhance breast cancer care in low-resource settings. With this pledge, The Pfizer Foundation has now invested $25 million in five countries to address breast cancer disparities.
“Since the launch of the Action & Impact initiative, we’ve observed meaningful progress across Rwanda, Ghana, and Tanzania, empowering communities to lead the charge and helping women gain access to breast cancer care that once felt out of reach,” stated Darren Back, President, The Pfizer Foundation. “As our trusted partners collaborate closely with governments to strengthen health systems, engage communities, and decentralize diagnosis and care, we’re helping build a successful model to help ensure more women can receive the care they require when and where they require it.”
One in three (32%) new cancer cases in Ethiopia and one in six (16.1%) of all cancer diagnoses in Kenya are breast cancer, making it the most prevalent occuring cancer in sub-Saharan Africa.3 Due to obstacles that restrict access to treatment and delay diagnosis, the five-year survival rate for breast cancer is about 40% on average in sub-Saharan Africa, compared to over 90% in many high-income nations.
“In Ethiopia, as in many other countries, breast cancer remains a notable public health challenge as many women are diagnosed in advanced stages and have limited access to treatment,” mentioned Dr. Krishna Udayakumar, Executive Director, Innovations in Healthcare. “With The Pfizer Foundation’s support, we aim to partner with communities and health leaders to expand education, reduce prejudice, and strengthen seamless and timely diagnosis and treatment, so that lifesaving care becomes the standard for every woman.”
“In the last decade, AMPATH partners have significantly grown our oncology program in Kenya from serving just 150 patients a year to more than 200 patients each day,” said Dr. Philip K. Kirwa, Chief Executive Officer, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, an AMPATH Kenya partner. “With this new grant funding, we will build on this success to not only help improve breast cancer outcomes for women in Kenya but also generate insights to inform national policy and catalyze sustainable improvements in cancer care across the region.”
The Action & Impact strategy is in line with Pfizer’s overarching goal of delivering innovations that transform patients’ lives. The goal of the Pfizer Foundation is to support the development of healthier communities by funding locally driven solutions to the complicated global health issues of today. The program also advances the goals of Pfizer’s Accord for a Healthier World, which seeks to close the health equity gap and increase access to high-quality healthcare by granting 45 lower-income nations worldwide access to Pfizer’s entire line of medications and vaccines, for which Pfizer has non-profit global rights.
