Drug access program provides affordable medicines to Cameroon’s cancer patients

The successful treatment of most cancers relies on the use of a cocktail of drugs that are administered at precise intervals over discrete periods of time. For example, one treatment regimen for Burkitt’s lymphoma (BL) – a cancer commonly found in Africa – requires administration of seven different drugs over a period of 15 days. This protocol is repeated every four weeks for three months. With the correct treatment, the long-term survival rate of childhood BL in the United States is over 90%.¹ In contrast, the majority of pediatric BL patients in Africa succumb to the disease.² Decreased survival rates of other cancers are also common in Africa. The stark disparity in survival can be attributed in part to the inability of cancer patients to afford the cost of their entire treatment regimen. 

The Mbingo Baptist Hospital (MBH) – one of the nine hospitals and 82 health centers that comprise the Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Services network – is one of Cameroon’s few cancer centers. As with the rest of Cameroon, many of MBH’s cancer patients have low annual incomes and struggle to afford cancer treatment. As a result, patients often abandon treatment or procure poor quality or counterfeit medicines from external suppliers. Dedicated to ensuring that its patients – regardless of their economic circumstances – are able to receive the same quality care, MBH requested BVGH’s support purchasing high-quality, affordable cancer drugs. 

In response, BVGH worked with MBH’s pharmacy and oncology staff to select the highest-priority cancer drugs, identify the drugs’ manufacturers, obtain price information, and determine the best company from which to source the products. Upon selecting the supplier, BVGH arranged for MBH to procure the drugs directly from their manufacturers, thereby eliminating unnecessary mark-ups by in-country intermediaries. BVGH engaged MBH’s logistics expert to coordinate the shipment, customs clearance, and delivery to the hospital pharmacy. 

Despite the more affordable prices, a portion of MBH’s cancer patients are still unable to afford the drugs. To address patients’ financial needs, MBH used a patient poverty index to create a tiered pricing structure. MBH’s pricing system adjusts the cost of medicines based on the income status of the patient. With this method, the poorest patients at MBH can access life-saving cancer medicines at no cost and pursue treatment routes that were previously unattainable. Dr. Signang Alberic, a Clinical Pharmacist at the hospital, is hopeful for the future of the drug access program. He remarked, “Our partnership with BVGH has enabled our patients to access top-quality care. We can now budget for our orders and ensure a steady supply of quality and affordable medicines.”