Photo: Julien Pistre, IMAGEO/Sanofi.

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes, and mental disorders are the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. NCDs have emerged as a major public health threat over the last few decades and are now at a crisis point. It is estimated that these diseases are responsible for as many as 36 million premature deaths each year. According to the World Health Organization, almost three-quarters of NCD-related deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, where access to healthcare is limited.

In 2017, Sanofi launched the Access Accelerated Initiative (AAI) together with 21 companies, the World Bank, and the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC). The new coalition’s aim is to address the burden of NCDs in low- and lower-middle-income countries and to reduce premature deaths from NCDs by one-third by 2030 in order to achieve one of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. The initiative runs as an initial three-year commitment to develop, measure, and replicate sustainable programs. By building on longstanding individual company programs in global health, AAI will address a variety of access barriers to the prevention, treatment, and care of NCDs.

Sanofi is proud to be a founding partner of the Access Accelerated Initiative. Our active participation in the AAI is rooted in our longstanding efforts to help ensure that appropriate and innovative treatments are made accessible to all those who need them. Sanofi’s initial commitment includes programs spanning cancer prevention and treatment, diabetes prevention, as well as raising awareness and building capacity about mental health. These projects are part of a wider network that includes more than 20 other projects from all the partner companies, each playing a role to advance the fight against NCDs.

My Child Matters – fighting childhood cancer 

Each year, nearly 300,000 children and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer. About 80 percent of them live in countries with limited resources and where cure rates hover around 40 percent – and as low as 10–20 percent in some sub-Saharan African countries – compared to more than 80 percent in developed countries. 

Due to this dramatic situation, the Sanofi Espoir Foundation set up the “My Child Matters” program 11 years ago in order to fight childhood cancers. 

In partnership with the UICC, the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the International Society of Pediatric Oncology, the GFAOP (Franco-African Pediatric Oncology Group), and the Alliance Mondiale Contre le Cancer. “My Child Matters” fuses financial support, the expertise of cancer specialists from the world over, and contributes to building capacity at the local level in different ways, among others: 

• training healthcare professionals 
• creating and disseminating relevant information about childhood cancer (including cancer registries and epidemiologic data) 
• encouraging earlier detection 
• improving access to treatment and care

Cancer is a prime example of a non communicable disease for which diseaseawareness, screenings, and early diagnoses are key to treatment. As we know, childhood cancers may be successfully cured because of two conditions: early diagnoses and the right treatments. Yet, this is not true everywhere. Although in the world’s richest countries, eight out of ten children get better, only two out of ten manage to overcome the disease in the poorest countries. Dr. Anne Gagnepain-Lacheteau, Medical Director of the Sanofi Espoir Foundation, explains: “This program exists for a simple reason: to give the same chance, to all children around the world, to have access to care and to be cured (give children around the world the same chance of getting treatment).” In 11 years, we have achieved tangible results, including decentralizing and harmonizing care in Paraguay, establishing a childhood cancer registry in Colombia, training and graduating new pediatric oncologists in French speaking Africa and establishing a retinoblastoma (a rare form of cancer in the eyes) network in sub-Saharan Africa. In total, 42 countries have been involved since the inception of the ”My child Matters” program, enabling treatment access for 50,000 children and training for 15,000 healthcare professionals.

FAST – Fight Against Stigma

Nearly 450 million people worldwide suffer from mental disorders, but the majority of patients in developing countries do not receive any treatment. The reasons are multiple and among them are the lack of trained healthcare professionals, poor access to medicines, but also prejudices and beliefs surrounding these diseases. Patients are often marginalized by society, rejected, and excluded. 

This is why the “FAST – Fight Against STigma” initiative was launched. Since 2008, it has been helping to educate communities, train healthcare professionals, and better manage patients with mental disorders. It was developed by Sanofi in cooperation with the World Association of Social Psychiatry to improve access to mental healthcare in low- and middleincome countries. 

Dr. François Bompart, Head of the Access to Medicines department, says: “Sanofi is strongly committed to improving access to quality care for patients suffering from mental disorders in developing countries. Little attention is paid to these patients, who are neglected in too many parts of the world, and we are proud to be innovators in this field. Our actions are aimed at combating discrimination against these patients and ensuring they are integrated in the healthcare system.” 

Initiated in Morocco and Mauritania, and in partnership with local authorities, health professionals, patient organizations, and NGOs, these programs are now implemented in countries such as Armenia, Cameroon, Bolivia, Myanmar, and Madagascar. They combine the training of local healthcare personnel with the fight against stigma regarding mental disorders among communities and efforts for more availability to needed medicines.

KiDS and diabetes in schools

People living with diabetes constantly need to balance medication, food, and physical activity every day to maintain long-term health. This is no different for children with diabetes. Yet, the school environment, where these children spend a significant portion of their time, can pose significant challenges, ranging from difficulties to receiving treatment to exclusion from certain activities. The number of children and young people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes is increasing worldwide. To date, every 6 minutes a child is diagnosed with diabetes. Evidence has highlighted that a lack of diabetes knowledge within the school environment leads to poor support, isolation, stigma, and discrimination for the concerned children. Physical activity and good diet reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes, including in the school environment. Only a limited number of school programs exist that address these health challenges.

Sanofi has co-created the Kids and Diabetes in Schools (KiD’s) initiative – a partnership with the International Diabetes Federation and the International Society for Paediatric and Adolescent Diabetes – which aims to support children with type 1 diabetes in managing their disease and avoiding discrimination in a school setting as well as raising awareness about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle among all schoolchildren. This educational program is primarily targeted at teachers, school nurses and other staff, school children (6–14 years old), and their parents. The ultimate goal is to achieve sustainable change in those countries by working closely with partners and policymakers to introduce education centered around diabetes and healthy living habits in the national teachers’ curriculum.

Antonio Tataranni, Head of the Medical Affairs Diabetes and Cardiovascular Business Unit at Sanofi, says: “Sanofi is committed to sustainable solutions that improve the lives of people with diabetes everywhere – children included. We believe that initiatives such as KiD’s are also essential for promoting healthy living at an early age, potentially helping in the prevention of type 2 diabetes.”

The KiD’s initiative has been launched in India, Brazil, United Arab Emirates, and Pakistan, and the toolkit is currently available in nine languages.

For decades, Sanofi has been collaborating with governments, public authorities, and local communities to improve access to healthcare in some of the poorest countries. Sanofi has a longstanding commitment to supporting low- and middle-income countries with building sustainable healthcare access and delivery systems through programs that focus on capacity-building for vaccines, neglected tropical diseases, rare diseases, and infectious diseases. Sanofi is convinced that the Access Accelerated Initiative is well-placed to bring us closer to reducing the burden of non-communicable diseases in low- and lower-middle-income countries.