All.Can is glad to announce that we are part of the newly founded initiative Access to Oncology Medicines (ATOM) Coalition, established by UICC and its partners in a global effort to increase access to cancer medicines in low and lower middle-income countries, as well as to increase the capacity for diagnosing cancer and for the proper handling and supply monitoring of these medicines.
Priority will be given to medicines currently on the WHO Essential Medicines List (EML), or those likely to be included in the future, which treat cancers with the highest incidence-to-mortality in LLMICs (lung, colorectal, breast, cervical, prostate and childhood cancers).
The ATOM Coalition has two main ambitions:
- increase the availability and affordability of cancer medicines
- increase the capacity to use these medicines appropriately.
This implies:
- working with governments and other stakeholders in selected ATOM countries to assess their needs and offer targeted training and capacity building support (eg in diagnosing cancer, the proper handling and supply monitoring of cancer medicines);
- support generic, biosimilar and originator manufacturers to develop, register and supply quality-assured essential cancer medicines at affordable prices in selected ATOM countries;
- facilitating the successful use of voluntary licenses for patented EML medicines and new medicines that are of significant public health importance in ATOM target countries.
The ATOM Coalition will work with a range of global and country-level partners currently implementing access projects in LLMICs to complement, enhance and amplify their impact.
It will build on the network, health expertise and experience of all partners. An important added value of ATOM is to address the current lack of connectivity between different health initiatives. ATOM seeks to complement existing access programmes and support their growth by developing synergies and addressing common challenges.