Direct Relief partners with leading cancer treatment companies to provide life-saving medicines to underserved patients throughout the world
Quick Facts
Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally
Approximately 70% of deaths from cancer occur in low- and middle-income countries, according to the UN World Health Organization
Direct Relief partners with leading cancer treatment companies to provide access to life-saving cancer treatment to more than 50 public cancer hospitals around the world
How Direct Relief Expands Global Access to Cancer Care
Cancer network
Direct Relief partners with leading biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, as well as cancer institutions, around the world, to source and deliver lifesaving treatments for patients in need. For more than 15 years, Direct Relief has supported cancer patients in over 50 countries, providing more than 1.5 billion defined daily doses of cancer treatments and associated therapeutic agents.
City cancer challenge
As a member of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), Direct Relief has partnered with Amgen and the City Cancer Challenge (C/Can) — an initiative that supports cities around the world to improve access to quality, equitable cancer care — to advance access to cancer treatments in five low- and middle-income countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. With a shared mission of transforming the way public and private stakeholders work together to design, plan and implement cancer care solutions in cities, the joint partnership is collaborating to strengthen health infrastructures and capacities for cancer diagnosis, treatment and care.
C/Can Paraguay: Improving Health Outcomes for Breast Cancer Patients
Through its partnerships with Amgen and C/Can, Direct Relief is working to improve health outcomes for breast cancer patients in Paraguay’s capital city of Asunción. In addition to delivering critical cancer diagnostics and treatments, the joint partnership is engaging local stakeholders to strengthen health infrastructure, the healthcare workforce, surveillance capacity, and palliative and supportive care at Paraguay’s leading cancer treatment institutions.
For more than 25 years, Direct Relief has supported healthcare providers in Paraguay to expand access to essential treatments for cancer and other communicable and non-communicable diseases through the provision of donated medicines and medical supplies. Most recently, Direct Relief supplied Paraguayan hospitals and community health workers on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic with critical medicines and supplies, including personal protective equipment, to bolster the country’s capacity to care for patients and reduce disease transmission.
Global Hope
Direct Relief partners with Global Hematology Oncology Pediatric Excellence (Global HOPE), an initiative of Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine, and Teva Pharmaceuticals to expand access to lifesaving cancer therapies and improve the prognosis of children with cancer and blood disorders in sub-Saharan Africa. Since 2019, Direct Relief has provided more than 180,000 defined daily doses of critical cancer treatments in support of the initiative, reaching pediatric patients in Botswana, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda.
“Thanks to this collaboration, children who would otherwise be unable to access cancer therapies will be able to receive the treatments they need.”
–Thomas Tighe, President and CEO of Direct Relief
pediatric cancer care in mexico
Since 2016, Direct Relief has partnered with the AbbVie Foundation and Casa de la Amistad para Niños con Cáncer (CDLA) — a humanitarian organization based in Mexico City that provides services, including counseling, education, nutritional support, shelter and transportation, to children with cancer and their families — to help under-resourced families in Mexico overcome barriers that prevent many children with cancer from accessing and adhering to treatment. In coordination with the AbbVie Foundation and CDLA, Direct Relief supports more than 300 pediatric patients from rural communities with stipends for food, lodging and transportation, reducing the costs associated with traveling to and receiving cancer care at hospitals.
LEARN MORE ABOUT DIRECT RELIEF’S WORK IN MEXICO
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