- Government of Botswana announces new
public-private partnership to treat children with cancer and blood
disorders
- The $100 million initiative to
create a pediatric hematology-oncology treatment network and care
infrastructure is supported by $50 million donation from the
Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation and matched by $50 million in
additional philanthropy
- Partnership includes Texas
Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers, Baylor College of
Medicine International Pediatric AIDS Initiative at Texas
Children’s Hospital and the Governments of Botswana, Uganda and
Malawi
His Excellency the President Lieutenant General Dr. Seretse
Khama Ian Khama of the Republic of Botswana, the Honorable Minister
Dorcas Makgato of the Ministry of Health and Wellness, the
Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, Texas Children’s Cancer and
Hematology Centers (TXCH) and Baylor College of Medicine
International Pediatric AIDS Initiative at Texas Children’s
Hospital (BIPAI) through public-private partnerships with the
governments of Botswana, Uganda and Malawi, announced a $100
million initiative to create an innovative pediatric
hematology-oncology treatment network in southern and east Africa.
The comprehensive initiative called Global HOPE
(Hematology-Oncology Pediatric Excellence) will build long-term
capacity to treat and dramatically improve the prognosis of
thousands of children with cancer and blood disorders in southern
and eastern Africa.
In the United States, 80 percent of children with cancer
survive. In sub-Saharan Africa, the overwhelming majority of
pediatric patients do not survive. The mortality rate is estimated
to be as high as 90 percent, meaning that thousands of children die
from cancer across Africa each year. This is in large part due to
an inadequate healthcare infrastructure and a significant lack of
expert physicians and other healthcare workers trained to treat
children with cancer. The most common types of childhood cancers
are blood cancers, including leukemia and lymphoma.
Global HOPE will partner with local Governments and Ministries
of Health to build medical capacity to diagnose and treat pediatric
blood disorders and cancer in Botswana, Malawi and Uganda. The
initiative will also create significant clinical, educational and
research capabilities. Doctors, nurses and ancillary professionals
will be recruited from around the world to provide training to
local healthcare professionals and to begin treating children with
blood disorders and cancer immediately.
“This project is building on a solid foundation for pediatric
cancer treatment in Botswana that began with pediatric oncologists
from Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers,” said His
Excellency the President Lieutenant General Dr. Seretse Khama Ian
Khama of the Republic of Botswana. “The Global HOPE program will
bring to Botswana the latest bio-medical technologies and the
potential to work with local institutions such as the Botswana
Innovation Hub and University of Botswana to quickly increase the
survival of children with cancer and life-threatening blood
disorders in Botswana and the region.”
The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation is committing $50 million
over five years to fund the training of healthcare providers as
well as clinical infrastructure and operations. BIPAI will raise an
additional $50 million for the initiative.
“We are eager to get started on this critical initiative to help
children with blood disorders and cancer. Working with our partners
and drawing on our expertise of building sustainable health systems
in underserved countries, we will help make a significant
difference in the outcomes for children while creating a blueprint
for other countries to follow,” said Giovanni Caforio, M.D.,
chairman of the board of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation and
chief executive officer, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company. “This
initiative builds on 18 years of success of the Foundation’s SECURE
THE FUTURE® program and will offer new hope to families impacted by
pediatric blood disorders and cancer.”
As public-private partnerships, the various governments will
each play an important role in developing the pediatric
hematology-oncology network, assisting with the training, technical
assistance, logistics and resources to support Global HOPE.
The Global HOPE initiative will train an estimated 4,800
healthcare professionals from Botswana, Uganda, Malawi and other
African countries, including doctors and nurses specializing in
pediatric hematology-oncology and social workers. The program
estimates that over 5,000 children will receive care in the first
five years.
“With only five pediatric oncologists currently in the countries
of Botswana, Malawi and Uganda combined, there are simply not
enough expert doctors to treat all the children diagnosed with
blood disorders and cancer. We believe in these countries there are
more than 11,000 new cases annually of pediatric cancer and 40,000
new cases of serious, life-threatening blood disorders such as
sickle cell disease and hemophilia. Because of these staggering
numbers, more healthcare providers with special expertise are
urgently needed,” said David G. Poplack, M.D., director of Texas
Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers and Professor of Pediatric
Oncology at Baylor College of Medicine. “Global HOPE will help
build capacity in the region to diagnose and care for children with
blood disorders and cancer, offering the potential for
transformational change in survivorship for these children.”
The Global HOPE initiative will be modeled on the work of the
Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, BIPAI and the Governments of
Botswana, Uganda and Malawi, which created the largest pediatric
HIV treatment network in the world, leveraging existing experience,
infrastructure, and public/private partnerships created through the
initiative. Since 2003, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation and
BIPAI have trained 52,000 healthcare professionals and currently
provide care for nearly 300,000 children with HIV and their
families in sub-Saharan Africa, lowering the mortality rate for
these children to 1.2 percent.
“The success we’ve had in radically changing the course of
pediatric HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa is due in large part to
the tremendous support provided by the country governments,
healthcare providers on the ground and donors who have made our
work possible,” said Mark W. Kline, M.D., president and founder of
BIPAI, physician-in-chief of Texas Children’s Hospital and chair of
the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine. “We
look forward to helping patients and their families by embarking on
this unchartered area of cancer care in Africa. Working with our
partners, we aim to build a self-sustaining infrastructure that
changes the tide of these childhood diseases in sub-Saharan
Africa.”
About the Republic of Botswana and the Ministry of Health and
Wellness
Botswana is a country with two million inhabitants in southern
Africa with abundant and diverse natural resources. The official
languages are English and Setswana. Since independence in 1966,
Botswana has been a parliamentary republic; the chief of state and
head of government is the president. Botswana’s economy is a
success story in southern Africa due to the investment of the
government in the education, health, clean water and
telecommunications sectors to create a better standard of living
for its citizens and to foster a conducive environment for free
enterprise to prosper.
The Ministry of Health and Wellness aims to improve the
physical, mental, and social well-being of every citizen of
Botswana to fully contribute to the development of Botswana through
a healthy nation.
About the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation
The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation is committed to improving
the health outcomes of populations disproportionately affected by
serious diseases by strengthening healthcare worker capacity,
integrating medical care and community-based supportive services,
and addressing unmet medical need. The Foundation engages partners
to develop, execute, evaluate and promote innovative programs to
help patients with lung cancer and removing barriers to accessing
care in the United States, HIV and comorbid diseases such as
cervical and breast cancers and tuberculosis in sub-Saharan Africa,
hepatitis B and C in China and India and veterans’ mental health
and well-being in the U.S.
Since 1999, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation’s SECURE THE
FUTURE® initiative has been working with partners in Africa to
provide care and support for communities affected by HIV,
tuberculosis, women’s cancer and most recently, lung cancer. Global
HOPE will apply this same transformational model to pediatric
oncology and hematology in a number of the same geographic
areas.
Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers at Texas
Children’s Hospital
Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers (TXCH) is the
largest pediatric hematology-oncology program in the U.S., treating
patients from 35 states and 26 countries. TXCH performs advanced
patient care, cutting edge clinical and laboratory research and has
largest training program for pediatric hematology-oncology in the
U.S. With a staff of renowned experts, the centers have developed a
wide array of programs aimed at curing children with diagnoses
ranging from the most common to the very rare. The team of 186
faculty and nearly 1,000 staff have pioneered many of the now
standard treatments for pediatric cancer and blood disorders. TXCH
has a long-standing commitment to improving global health. For more
information, please visit txch.org.
Baylor College of Medicine International Pediatric AIDS
Initiative at Texas Children’s Hospital (BIPAI)
Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI) is a
non-profit organization dedicated to providing pediatric and
maternal health care in resource limited settings. BIPAI medical
teams offer free medical care and medical education for HIV/AIDS,
tuberculosis, malaria, malnutrition, obstetrics/gynecology,
hematology/oncology and more. Partnering with Texas Children’s
Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine, BIPAI operates in 11
countries, caring for nearly 300,000 children and their families.
Learn more at www.bipai.org.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170221005215/en/
Media:Botswana Ministry of Health and
WellnessDoreen Motshegwa, +267 73972
391dfmotshegwa@gov.bworBristol-Myers SquibbKen Dominski, +1
609-252-5251ken.dominski@bms.comorLisa McCormick Lavery, +1
609-865-4014lisa.mccormicklavery@bms.comorTexas Children’s
Cancer and Hematology Centers - Global HOPEChristy Brunton, +1
281-684-3184clbrunto@texaschildrens.orgorCaroline Timm, +1
501-804-2608octimm@texaschildrens.orgorBaylor College of
Medicine International Pediatric AIDS Initiative at Texas
Children’s Hospital (BIPAI)Dana Benson, +1
713-798-8267benson@bcm.edu
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