WHO adds new medicines to its list of essential medicines

During epidemics for antimicrobial drugs and fungal diseases such as mucormycosis, there was a particularly increased second wave. The updated WHO list of essential medicines includes 20 new medicines for adults and 17 for children and specifies new uses for 28 medicines already listed.

The WHO said high prices for both new, patented drugs and older drugs like insulin keep some essential drugs out of reach for many patients.

The WHO Model List of Essential Medicines refers to medicines that meet the primary health care needs of the majority of the population.

The WHO notes that diabetes is spreading rapidly in low- and middle-income countries.

“Many people who require insulin face financial difficulty in getting it or go without it and lose their lives. The addition of insulin analogs (an altered form of insulin) to the essential medicines list, along with efforts to ensure affordable access to all insulin products and to expand the use of biosimilars, is an important step towards ensuring Access to all those in need of a life-saving product. This,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General, WHO.

According to the International Diabetes Federation, 463 million people have diabetes globally, with 88 million people in Southeast Asia. Of this, 77 million are in India with 8.9% prevalence of diabetes in the population.

The WHO notes that insulin production is concentrated in a small number of manufacturing facilities, and three companies control most of the global market. It added that the lack of competition leads to high drug prices that are prohibitive for many people and health systems.

“Inclusion on the list means that biosimilar insulin analogs may be eligible for WHO’s prequalification programme; WHO prequalification could result in more quality-assured biosimilars entering the international market, creating competition to bring down prices and give countries a greater choice of products,” WHO said.

Public health experts in India lauded the move.

“Overall, this step by WHO is welcome, especially with regard to the availability of life- and heart-saving SGLT2 inhibitor drugs at the primary stage. However, the decision to provision insulin analogs at the primary level is intriguing as they cost 2–5 times more than regular insulin and have little to no efficacy in lowering blood glucose, apart from a low propensity to cause hypoglycemia. add up. At the primary level (and at all levels), low cost regular insulin works as effectively as any highly publicized expensive insulin,” said Dr Anoop Mishra, President, Fortis-C-DOC and President of Diabetes Foundation (India). he said.

In terms of cancer treatment, four new drugs were added to the model lists—enzalutamide as an alternative to abiraterone for prostate cancer; Everolimus for subependymal giant cell astrocytoma (SEGA), a type of brain tumor in children; Ibrutinib, a targeted drug for chronic lymphocytic leukemia; and raspberries for tumor lysis syndrome, a serious complication of some cancer treatments.