Isabel Mestres: Time to Rethink Research for Global Equity

Isabel Mestres shared a post by Foreign Policy on LinkedIn, adding:

“$80 Billion for Cancer Drugs, But LMICs Are Left Behind: Time to Rethink Research for Global Equity.

Over $80 billion is spent annually on cancer drug development, yet many innovations fail to reach low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), which bear 70% of the global cancer burden.

Conducting cancer clinical trials in LMICs is crucial for creating effective and equitable care. By running trials in LMICs, we can ensure the safety, efficacy and effectiveness of new therapies are tested on diverse populations, making them suitable for everyone, not just those in wealthier nations. This approach not only provides patients in these regions with early access to new therapies but also helps boost local clinical research capacity as an important driver for quality improvement of service delivery.

At City Cancer Challenge, we support cities in addressing local service readiness to ensure the most essential service delivery infrastructure is in place to deliver appropriate care and enable local systems to fully attain the best possible outcomes from oncology medicines. Building clinical research capacity in LMICs can be an important driver of such readiness as it helps to upgrade essential services, strengthen quality improvement programmes and train (and retain) professionals committed to excellence.

Thank you Darryl Sleep, Amgen, Bob Li, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Cure4Cancer for cohosting this session with C/Can and Foreign Policy at UNGA79 to raise awareness of this critical subject and Dr. Nwamaka Lasebikan, Nigerian Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment (NICRAT), for sharing your perspective from, C/Can city Abuja, Nigeria.

Without building the system’s capacity, innovation will continue to bypass those who need it most. It’s time to rethink cancer research and focus on closing the care gap.

PS: Thank you Diogo de Sousa Neves for your support with this post.”

Quoting Foreign Policy‘s post:

“A Roadmap to Health Equity: Tackling NCDs in LMICs Live now: Bob Li, Vice President of Global Research Affairs at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; Dr. Nwamaka Lasebikan, Director of Research and Innovation at the Nigerian Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment, and Dr. Darryl Sleep, Head of Global Public Health at Amgen, join Foreign Policy’s Dr. Mayesha A. on Tackling NCDs in LMICs.

View the full agenda here.”

Source: Isabel Mestres/LinkedIn and Foreign Policy/LinkedIn

Isabel Mestres is the CEO of the City Cancer Challenge (C/Can), previously being the Director of Global Public Affairs. She also led initiatives in membership and partnership development at the International Union for Cancer Control. Mestres’ strategic sense positions her to propel C/Can forward, advancing its mission of enhancing cancer care accessibility in low- and middle-income nations.