One such initiative is the 10,000 Women campaign, led by the health tech start-up mPharma, which is promoting human papillomavirus (HPV) testing to reduce the incidence of cervical cancer in Ghana and Nigeria – and demonstrating the game-changing potential of partnerships.

The health challenge is significant. Cervical cancer is the second-most common cancer in sub-Saharan Africa and the leading cause of cancer death for women. And the continent as a whole has the highest incidence and mortality rates of cervical cancer globally.

10,000 Women is built on data

That is why building awareness is central to the 10,000 Women campaign, as well as free HPV tests for women aged 21–60 in Ghana and Nigeria. Rockson recalls the campaign’s launch in rural Ghana: of 100 women tested in one small community, 40% were HPV-positive. To date, more than 3,000 women have been screened through the campaign, and 30% have tested positive.

Could this campaign reshape diagnostics?

But mPharma’s goals are even more ambitious than building awareness. “It’s a market-shaping campaign,” says Rockson.

Rockson says that the aim is to improve access to HPV testing – sustainably. “Covid-19 showed that access to affordable diagnostics is an essential part of any public health response,” he says. The pandemic prompted major investment in molecular diagnostic-testing infrastructure – mPharma itself has invested in more than 45 hospitals and laboratories in Ghana and Nigeria – and that infrastructure can be repurposed to make other tests more accessible. mPharma has already been able to reduce the cost of an HPV test from about $80 to less than $15, according to Rockson.

New partners expand access to vaccination

It was to give more women access to vaccinations that mPharma partnered with MSD on the campaign. “Our work with MSD is a central pillar in prevention,” says Rockson. One of the priorities is expanding eligibility: provision has previously been focused on girls of school age, which leaves many sexually active young women without access to vaccinations – a gap that mPharma aims to close.

Access is everything

Costs are central to Africa’s wider cancer challenges, says Rockson: “The biggest question we need to answer is, ‘How do we sustainably scale access to care?’”

He believes that the answer, alongside partnership, lies in developing new business models. “Working with MSD, we've created new financial models that enable women to get a vaccine by limiting the immediate cost,” he explains. The ‘Heal Now, Pay Later’ scheme provides micropayment plans that allow women to spread the cost over time and minimise the financial impact.

This makes the 10,000 Women campaign an example of how cancer care as a whole needs to change, says Rockson. Pharmaceutical companies may create excellent products, but that is only half the challenge – equally important is enabling people to access them. “These products are not just medical products, they are financial products,” says Rockson. He challenges manufacturers to be “as innovative on financial access as they are on the science”.

It is a critical question from mPharma to its partners: “What are the financial instruments that need to exist to enable patients to have access to this wonderful science?”