The World Health Organization (WHO) today announced the launch of the Global Accelerator for Paediatric Formulations (GAP-f) Strategic Roadmap 2025–2030, a comprehensive five-year plan to transform the development and delivery of essential medicines for children worldwide.
Unveiled during a high-level side event at the Seventy-eighth World Health Assembly, the roadmap outlines an ambitious "30 by '30" commitment to assess priorities in 10 high-burden diseases, accelerate 10 priority medicines, and strengthen paediatric medicine ecosystems in 10 countries by 2030.
"Children have been waiting too long for medicines that meet their specific needs," said Dr Jeremy Farrar, Chief Scientist at WHO. "This strategic roadmap represents a turning point in our collective efforts to ensure that no child is denied access to life-saving treatments simply because appropriate medicines don't exist or aren't accessible."
Despite significant advances in global health, children continue to face substantial barriers in accessing appropriate medications. The GAP-f network, founded in 2020, aims to address these challenges by fostering collaboration among stakeholders to identify gaps, set priorities and accelerate the research, development and delivery of high-quality, affordable and accessible medicines for children.
The five-year strategy focuses on two main strategic axes:
These approaches will be applied across four critical lifecycle areas: portfolio prioritization, clinical research, product development and regulatory processes, and access and delivery. Disease areas of focus will be expanded through applying an agile prioritization framework driven by unmet needs and opportunity for impact. Across the life cycle, GAP-f will continue to engage with an ecosystem approach, forging new collaboration and partnerships with the private sector, funders, regulators, countries, civil society and health-care workers around the world.
“Closing the paediatric medicines gap is not just a matter of innovation – it’s a matter of equity, efficiency and shared responsibility,” said Dr Philippe Duneton, Executive Director, Unitaid. “The new GAP-f strategy sets a bold course toward systemic change, but we will only succeed through strategic coordination, aligned investments and strong partnerships. Unitaid is proud to stand with GAP-f and our global partners to turn innovation into access, and to ensure that no child is left behind.”
The GAP-f model has already demonstrated sound progress. Its approach is anticipated to accelerate access to certain medicines by more than 10 years, as inspired by work in the HIV community on paediatric dolutegravir.
The initiative brings together around 30 key global health organizations and builds on a broad range of skills and expertise resulting from longstanding commitment to child health, innovation and access.
The roadmap outlines specific objectives, including:
In alignment with GAP-f strategic direction, WHO is launching a three-year initiative to strengthen the paediatric medicines ecosystem across the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region. Undertaken in partnership with Temasek Foundation, this work will drive innovation and improve access to essential paediatric treatments for high-burden conditions.
This initiative presents a unique opportunity to pivot to an integrated national and regional approach, ensuring tangible improvements in countries while generating insights for other regions. By documenting and scaling successful models, WHO and its GAP-f partners will collaborate with national programmes, academic institutions and child health centres to accelerate impact. Efforts will be staged for rapid, measurable improvements, particularly in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, while shaping a sustainable framework for broader regional and global collaboration and adoption.
“This meaningful initiative will accelerate the development and availability of child-friendly medicine formulations – crucial in improving health outcomes for millions of children affected by treatable and preventable diseases,” said Mr Ng Boon Heong, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of Temasek Foundation. “The programme will also promote data and knowledge sharing, that can inspire more partnerships and follow on funding. We look forward to more such collaborations that not only strengthen the work of institutions like WHO, but also help close urgent health gaps across Asia and beyond.”
The Global Accelerator for Paediatric Formulations (GAP-f) is a multi-stakeholder initiative that contributes to universal health coverage by fostering collaboration to identify gaps, set priorities and accelerate the research, development and delivery of high-quality, affordable and accessible medicines for children.
