E-DRUG: Statins Added to WHO Model List of Essential Medicines
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[Forwarded from ProCOR, discussion group on cardiovascular health in the developing world]
Weill Cornell Medical College Students Help Change Global Health Policy
NEW YORK (May 21, 2007) In a move to improve global public health, Weill
Cornell Medical College students have helped place a lifesaving heart
disease drug onto the World Health Organization's (WHO) list of essential
medicines. This list is a guideline for developing countries to choose which high-priority drugs should be supplied to their citizens inexpensively.
Students from Weill Cornell's chapter of Universities Allied for Essential
Medicines (UAEM) answered the charge of Dr. David Skorton, President of
Cornell University, and Dr. Antonio M. Gotto Jr., dean of Weill Cornell
Medical College, to "seek new strategies for Cornell to advance public
health" across the globe.
"I am extremely proud that the students at Weill Cornell Medical College
have had such an admirable influence on global health policy," says Dr.
Skorton, who is also a professor of internal medicine and pediatrics. "Such
actions by our students show the promise of their future leadership."
"Adding this medicine to the list of essential medicines represents an
exceptional achievement by our students," says Dr. Gotto, an internationally renowned expert in heart disease prevention, who served as the senior advisor for the project. "Because of the students' success, over 150 national governments that work with WHO will be encouraged to recognize heart disease as a serious health concern deserving of great medical attention."
UAEM comprises a national group of students whose goal is to determine how
universities can help ensure that biomedical products, including medicines,
are made more accessible in poor countries and further the amount of
research conducted on neglected diseases affecting the poor.
"For years, it was thought that heart disease was a concern of affluent
countries. But, today, nearly 80 percent of all deaths due to heart disease
occur in the developing world," says Sandeep Kishore, an MD-PhD student at
Weill Cornell Medical College who helped spearhead the initiative with UAEM. "Increasingly, 'Western' high-fat diets, tobacco use and urbanization have helped make heart disease a bigger killer than 'The Big Three'HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malariacombined."
Kishore and Ben Herbstman, UAEM members, petitioned WHO that simvastatin
(Zocor)originally manufactured by Merckbe added to the list. Simvastatin
was selected based on its worldwide availability, cost-effectiveness and the interest of generic firms in producing it. Such statin medicines have been shown to lower low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL) levels, commonly known as "bad cholesterol," by 25-30 percent in individuals at high-risk for heart disease.
Last month, the students from UAEM -- with the assistance of medical
librarians from Weill Cornell's Samuel J. Wood Library & C.V. Starr
Biomedical Information Center -- were successful in their efforts to get a
generic version of Zocor included on the list of essential medicines. Now,
the United Nations and other philanthropic foundations can donate large
numbers of the statin drug to the national pharmaceutical inventories of
developing countries.
Furthermore, generic versions of the medicine will be sold at a fraction of
their original price tag. The drug will cost as little as $40 per year per
person10 cents a daydown from nearly $1,200 a couple of years ago.
The announcement comes on the heels of Cornell University's new Africa
Initiative, a university-wide movement to promote sub-Saharan African
development and health.
ProCOR (www.procor.org) is a program of the Lown Cardiovascular
Research Foundation. ProCOR's email discussion is hosted by SATELLIFE
(www.healthnet.org), The Global Health Information Network.
--
Sandeep P. Kishore, M.Sc.
Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) Fellow
Weill Cornell / The Rockefeller University / Sloan-Kettering Cancer
Institute
Tri-Institutional MD-PhD Program
420 East 70th St, Suite 10M
New York, New York, USA 10021
email: sunny.kishore@gmail.com
tel: (917) 733 -1973