Written question asked by Gill Furniss (Labour) on Wednesday, 22 January 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 24 January 2025. It was answered by Anneliese Dodds (Labour) on Thursday, 30 January 2025 on behalf of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Unitaid: Finance

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of UK funding for UNITAID on the cost of HPV testing in (a) low and (b) middle-income countries.

Answer: Unitaid are a leading funder of innovative tools to find and treat cervical cancer in low- and middle-income countries, with HPV tests the most accurate way to identify if a woman is at higher risk of developing cervical cancer. Together with partners, Unitaid's interventions lowered the cost of HPV testing by nearly 40 per cent and reduced the price of portable thermal ablation devices for treating precancerous lesions by more than 45 per cent. Unitaid's work is laying the groundwork for national cervical cancer elimination programs worldwide. We highly value our Unitaid partnership and have contributed more than half a billion pounds in funding.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 25707
Session: 2024-26
Related items: Developing Countries: Cervical Cancer
Monday, 19 January 2026
Written questions
House of Lords
Subjects: Developing countries Finance Vaccination Human papillomavirus Unitaid
Link: View this Written question on www.parliament.uk