Initial efforts to optimize drug procurement through this global initiative have focused on the East African Community. ACCESS has facilitated collaboration between the Hospital for Sick Children, Harvard University, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, the World Bank, industry partners, and local childhood cancer treatment units in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Ethiopia. This partnership aims to catalog current drug availability, forecast current, and future need, and catalyze markets by leveraging philanthropic funds for pooled procurement.

Collaborations to amplify existing work by a number of ACCESS stakeholders is yielding systems-relevant data on drug needs and access in select countries. On the academic front, a partnership between SickKids and Harvard is developing novel tools and analytic approaches to drug forecasting and access dynamics in LMICs. Data collection in partner countries in the Caribbean and West Africa is underway, as well as in five East African countries (EAC). CHAI continues its impactful work to collect institutional procurement data and forecast need as a core facet of its Chemotherapy Access Program. 

Under the leadership of Dr. Rogo, the World Bank’s Health in Africa Initiative is partnering with CHAI, the SickKids-Harvard Cancer Medicines Collaborative, and local pediatric oncology leaders to undertake detailed analyses of pediatric cancer drug need and access in the EAC. BVGH likewise continues to collect drug volume and price data as a component of its MOH-partnered institutional assessments in its AAI-involved jurisdictions, to aid in procurement negotiations between local governments and industry.