FG to cut cancer treatment cost in Nigeria by 50%

The Federal Ministry of Health has said that Nigerians living with cancer would now save up to 50 percent of treatment cost as it launches a pioneer Chemotherapy Access Treatment (CAP) Programme.

The Minister of State for Health, Sen. Olorunnimbe Mamora, while launching the CAP at the National hospital Abuja on Tuesday, said that the programme would increase access to high quality essential cancer drugs and enable thousands of additional Nigerians to access care.

According to him, the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 60 per cent of patients who get cancer in Nigeria will die, adding that Nigeria records over 70,000 deaths due to cancer yearly.

He said that in spite of the statistics by the WHO, more than half of cancer patients in the country could not access treatment majorly because of the high cost in treatment. Mamora alleged that some cancer drugs were out of stock in public hospitals, forcing patients to obtain them from pharmacies where the prices were out of reach.

The minister decried that the abundance of counterfeit medicine in Nigerian market was worsening rather than improving patients’ conditions. He however, assured that the CAP would enable cancer patients in Nigeria to access lower-priced, high quality treatment at hospitals and pharmacies and reduce the burden of out-of-pocket payments.

-NAN