A Leading African University and a German Medical
Technology Giant Team Up to Fight Cancer
By Shola Adenekan.
Tuesday, July 12, 2016.
One of Africa’s leading universities
is working with one of Europe’s leading medical science and technology
companies to address the shortage of cancer doctors on the continent of Africa.
Merck confirms it is starting the first Merck
Africa Medical Oncology Fellowship Programme for African countries south of the
Sahara in partnership with University of Nairobi, Kenya. The program will be
conducted at University of Nairobi and is part of the company’s efforts to
improve access to cancer care and strengthen the healthcare system in emerging
markets.
In a first step, Merck will sponsor nine medical
doctors from African countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and
South Africa for a period of two years. The program will be extended to other
African countries in the following year. Moreover, Merck will support another
five African doctors to participate in a paediatric and adult medical
fellowship program, which will be held annually at Tata Memorial Hospital,
Mumbai, India. This program will start in August this year.
“We are committed to improving patient’s access to
healthcare all over the world”, said Rasha Kelej, who as Chief Social
Officer of the healthcare business sector of Merck leads the implementation
and coordination of activities, designed to have a positive impact on societies
in developing countries.
Mr Kelej points out that in many African countries,
oncologists are few and far between. He
says Merck wants to work with teaching hospitals across the continent with the
aim to increase the number of qualified oncologists.
He said: “The scarcity of trained healthcare
personnel capable of tackling prevention, early diagnosis and management of
cancer is a bigger challenge in Africa than the lack of financial resources.
Therefore, we firmly believe that initiatives like ours are very helpful for
Africa and also in a further step for more developing countries.”
Merck over the past years has significantly stepped
up its activities on the African continent with an expected doubling of sales by 2020.
In addition to its cancer drug Erbitux, which made Merck is a pioneer in
targeted cancer therapy, the company is also making fast progress in the field
of immuno-oncology, aimed at mobilizing the body’s own immune system to
fight cancer.
Prof. Isaac Kibwage, Principal of
Colleges of Health Sciences, University of Nairobi, said: “We believe
that the only way to effectively prevent, detect and treat the rising number of
cancer cases in Africa is through establishing public private partnerships between
health ministries, academia, and industry in implementing successful programs
such as the partnership with Merck. This fellowship program will not only
target Kenyan doctors but doctors from Sub-Saharan African countries as well
with the aim of improving the quality and accessibility of cancer care in the
continent.”
The shortage of oncologists threatens cancer care
in Africa. According to World Health Organization (WHO), by 2020 there are
expected to be 16 million new cases of cancer every year, 70% of which will be
in developing countries where governments are least prepared to address the
growing cancer burden and where survival rates are often less than half those
of more developed countries.
According to research done by Merck, Kenya only has
13 oncologists, most of them based in Nairobi for a population of 47 million,
which means one oncologist per 3.6 million people. For reference, in the
UK there are around 13 oncologists per 1 million people. Moreover, in Ethiopia
there are only four oncologists, all based in Addis Ababa for a population of
around 100 million inhabitants.