E-DRUG: Comparisons of essential medicines lists in 137 countries
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[Important message about Essential Medicines Lists! WB]
Dear e-drug subscribers,
I am writing to share some resources and findings on national essential
medicines lists (EMLs) that might be of interest to the eDrug community.
A study published a few months ago compared the EMLs of 137 countries and
found a large number of differences between these lists (ranging from 93 to
815 medicines, median: 296). These variations in medicines listed were
greater than expected based on diverse needs in different countries and the
findings suggest significant opportunities for improvement in selecting
essential medicines. Read the full article here:
https://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/97/6/18-222448/en/
Based on the same database of 137 country EMLs, another article describes
the inclusion of WHO-recommended NCD medicines on these national EMLs.
Overall, the results demonstrate that most priority NCD medicines (as per WHO Package of Essential NCD Interventions
https://www.who.int/ncds/management/Required_medicines.pdf
WHO HEARTS
https://www.who.int/cardiovascular_diseases/hearts/Hearts_package.pdf
and the NCD Best buys
https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/259232
are listed by most countries. There are always opportunities for improving
national EMLs and some are highlighted in the article, such as a low number
of countries listing the HPV vaccine on their EML.The abstract is pasted
below and the article can be accessed here:
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0220781
The database of medicines listed on EMLs examined can be found online at:
https://global.essentialmeds.org/dashboard/countries.
While this database is limited to EMLs published before 2018, our intention is to host an updated resource for EMLs in the future.
Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions. Thank you.
Kind regards,
Jordan Jarvis, MSc
DrPH Candidate, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK
Visiting Researcher, MAP-Centre for Urban Health Solutions, St. Michael's
Hospital, Toronto, Canada
Jordan.jarvis@lshtm.ac.uk
Dr Nav Persaud, MD, MSc, CCFP
Canada Research Chair in Health Justice
Associate Professor
University of Toronto Department of Family and Community Medicine
Staff Physician & Scientist
St Michael's Hospital
nav.persaud@utoronto.ca
Postal address:
80 Bond Street
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M5B 1X2