India promises $7.5 mn for ‘Cancer Moonshot’

In an important outreach in the Indo-Pacific, the Quad countries — India, United States, Australia and Japan — on Sunday launched a groundbreaking effort to help end cancer.

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This will be backed by several hundred million dollars of aid from Quad countries, international agencies and medical institutions. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will strengthen radiotherapy and medical imaging capacities.

Called the ‘Cancer Moonshot’, it aims to focus on cervical cancer, which affects women. Targetted programmes will be run in many countries to detect and treat cancer. India committed to providing HPV sampling kits, detection tools and cervical cancer vaccines worth $7.5 million under the programme. India’s method of cervical cancer screening — the Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid (VIA) — would be the model for Indo-Pacific countries. The Serum Institute of India, will source 40 million doses of the HPV vaccine.