Essential medicines are still essential
On Oct 21, WHO published the full report of the 20th Expert Committee on the Selection and Use of Essential Medicines, with its new WHO Model List of Essential Medicines (EML).
The new list includes recently developed medicines for
drug-resistant tuberculosis (bedaquiline and delamanid), a
number of new cancer treatments (such as imatinib, rituximab,
and trastuzumab), and, perhaps most controversially, new
direct-acting antiviral drugs (DAA) for the treatment of
hepatitis C (sofosbuvir, simeprevir, daclatasvir, ledipasvir,
and ombitasvir). Several of these medicines are very expensive.
It is not the first time that WHO has added expensive medicines
to the Model List. In 2002, the agency included 12
antiretroviral medicines for HIV/AIDS that were patented in many
countries, to focus global attention on a major global public
health need and to stimulate interventions to expand access to
these life-saving medicines. These products were unaffordable
for almost all countries at that time.
For many
years, the WHO Model List has been viewed by some as applicable
only to resource-constrained settings, and was assumed to
include only the most basic medicines. This is a profound
misunderstanding.
To read the article in full, click here.
Source:
The Lancet
