# Pool purchasing of essential cancer medicines across countries

Source: https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-cost-pooled-procurement-essential/  
OnCo record `idea-cost-pooled-procurement-essential` (Idea). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Small countries pay more for the same generic chemotherapy because they buy alone; the PAHO Strategic Fund and the WHO essential medicines list show that buying together brings prices down and keeps supply steady.

## Summary

The WHO Model List of Essential Medicines (24th list, 2025) includes a core set of cancer medicines. The PAHO Strategic Fund is a regional pooled-procurement mechanism for essential medicines that member states can use; the Global Platform for Access to Childhood Cancer Medicines (WHO and St. Jude) applies the model to paediatric oncology. Extending pooled procurement to the adult essential-medicines set (platinums, taxanes, anthracyclines, imatinib, tamoxifen, letrozole, trastuzumab biosimilars) would give middle-income countries the prices large buyers get and reduce shortages.

## Fields

- Kind: Idea
- Last checked: 2026-09-10
- Hypothesis: Pooled regional procurement of the WHO essential cancer medicines will reduce unit prices for participating countries by more than a quarter and cut stock-outs by half within three years.
- Rationale: Pooled procurement has worked for vaccines, antiretrovirals and tuberculosis drugs; cancer generics have the same economics.
- Proposed test: PAHO or a regional body publishes prices paid and stock-out data for participating versus non-participating countries.
- Maturity: being-tested-at-scale
- Actor: policy

## Sources

- WHO Model Lists of Essential Medicines: https://www.who.int/groups/expert-committee-on-selection-and-use-of-essential-medicines/essential-medicines-lists
- PAHO Strategic Fund: https://www.paho.org/en/paho-strategic-fund

## Connected records

- drugs: [Cisplatin](https://onco.cc/drugs/cisplatin/), [Imatinib](https://onco.cc/drugs/imatinib/), [Letrozole (and other aromatase inhibitors)](https://onco.cc/drugs/letrozole/), [Paclitaxel / nab-paclitaxel](https://onco.cc/drugs/paclitaxel/), [Tamoxifen](https://onco.cc/drugs/tamoxifen/)
- institutions: [St. Jude Children's Research Hospital](https://onco.cc/institutions/st-jude/), [World Health Organization Cancer Programme](https://onco.cc/institutions/who/)
- terms: [WHO Essential Medicines List for cancer](https://onco.cc/terms/who-essential-medicines/)
- bottlenecks: [Most of the world has almost no cancer care](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-global-access/), [Prices and value](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-drug-pricing/)

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