This report presents the recommendations of the WHO Expert Committee responsible for updating the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines. The first part contains a progress report on the new procedures for updating the Model List and the development of the WHO Essential Medicines Library. It continues with a section on changes made in revising the Model List followed by a review of some sections such as hypertensive medicines and fast track procedures for deleting items. Annexes include the 13th version of the Model List and items on the list sorted according to their 5-level Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical classification codes.
This report presents the recommendations of the WHO Expert Committee responsible for updating the WHO Model Lists of Essential Medicines. It contains a summary of the Committee's considerations and justifications for additions and changes to the Model Lists, including its recommendations. Annexes to the main report include the revised version of the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines (20th edition) and the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines for Children (6th edition). In addition there is a list of all the items on the Model Lists sorted according to their Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification codes.
In recent years, high prices of pharmaceutical products have posed challenges in high- and low-income countries alike. In many instances, high prices of pharmaceutical products have led to significant financial hardship for individuals and negatively impacted on healthcare systems' ability to provide population-wide access to essential medicines. Pharmaceutical pricing policies need to be carefully planned, carried out, and regularly checked and revised according to changing conditions. Strong, well-thought-out policies can guide well-informed and balanced decisions to achieve affordable access to essential health products. This guideline replaces the 2015 WHO guideline on country pharmaceutical pricing policies, revised to reflect the growing body of literature since the last evidence review in 2010. This update also recognizes country experiences in managing the prices of pharmaceutical products.
This manual attempts to provide simple, adequate and evidence-based information to health care professionals in primary health care especially in low- and middle-income countries to be able to provide pharmacological treatment to persons with mental disorders. The manual contains basic principles of prescribing followed by chapters on medicines used in psychotic disorders; depressive disorders; bipolar disorders; generalized anxiety and sleep disorders; obsessive compulsive disorders and panic attacks; and alcohol and opioid dependence. The annexes provide information on evidence retrieval, assessment and synthesis and the peer view process.
Based on careful analysis of burden of disease and the costs ofinterventions, this second edition of 'Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries, 2nd edition' highlights achievable priorities; measures progresstoward providing efficient, equitable care; promotes cost-effectiveinterventions to targeted populations; and encourages integrated effortsto optimize health. Nearly 500 experts - scientists, epidemiologists, health economists,academicians, and public health practitioners - from around the worldcontributed to the data sources and methodologies, and identifiedchallenges and priorities, resulting in this integrated, comprehensivereference volume on the state of health in developing countries.
This report presents the recommendations of the Subcommittee of the WHO Expert Committee responsible for the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines. The task of this Subcommittee was to draw up the first WHO Model List of Essential Medicines for Children. The first part of the report contains a summary of the Committee's considerations and justifications for the inclusion of particular medicines in the Model List for Children. Appendices to the main report include the first WHO Model List of Essential Medicines for Children, a list of all the items it contains sorted according to their 5-level Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification codes and a summary of medicines to be reviewed before the next meeting of the Subcommittee.
Medicine Price Surveys, Analyses and Comparisons establishes guidelines for the study and implementation of pharmaceutical price surveys, analyses, and comparisons. Its contributors evaluate price survey literature, discuss the accessibility and reliability of data sources, and provide a checklist and training kit on conducting price surveys, analyses, and comparisons. Their investigations survey price studies while accounting for the effects of methodologies and explaining regional differences in medicine prices. They also consider policy objectives such as affordable access to medicines and cost-containment as well as options for improving the effectiveness of policies. - Provides guidance for planning and implementing pharmaceutical pricing policies and systems - Reviews external price referencing systems - Explains common baselines for interpreting price surveys - Defines pharmaceutical price terminology and nomenclature
Managing Drug Supply (MDS) is the leading reference on how to manage essential medicines in developing countries. MDS was originally published in 1982; it was revised in 1997 with over 10,000 copies distributed in over 60 countries worldwide. The third edition, MDS-3: Managing Access to Medicines and Health Technologies reflects the dramatic changes in politics and public health priorities, advances in science and medicine, greater focus on health care systems, increased donor funding, and the advent of information technology that have profoundly affected access to essential medicines over the past 14 years. Nearly 100 experts from a wide range of disciplines and virtually every corner of the world have contributed to this third edition. In addition to many new country studies, references, and extensive revisions, MDS-3 offers new chapters on areas such as pharmaceutical benefits in insurance programs, pricing, intellectual property, drug seller initiatives, and traditional and complementary medicine. The revisions and new chapters echo the wide variety of issues that are important to health practitioners and policy makers today. MDS-3 will be a valuable tool in the effort to ensure universal access to quality medicines and health technologies and their appropriate use.
"The 19th Meeting of the WHO Expert Committee on the Selection and Use of Essential Medicine took place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 8 to 12 April 2013"--P. vii.
Thanks to remarkable advances in modern health care attributable to science, engineering, and medicine, it is now possible to cure or manage illnesses that were long deemed untreatable. At the same time, however, the United States is facing the vexing challenge of a seemingly uncontrolled rise in the cost of health care. Total medical expenditures are rapidly approaching 20 percent of the gross domestic product and are crowding out other priorities of national importance. The use of increasingly expensive prescription drugs is a significant part of this problem, making the cost of biopharmaceuticals a serious national concern with broad political implications. Especially with the highly visible and very large price increases for prescription drugs that have occurred in recent years, finding a way to make prescription medicinesâ€"and health care at largeâ€"more affordable for everyone has become a socioeconomic imperative. Affordability is a complex function of factors, including not just the prices of the drugs themselves, but also the details of an individual's insurance coverage and the number of medical conditions that an individual or family confronts. Therefore, any solution to the affordability issue will require considering all of these factors together. The current high and increasing costs of prescription drugsâ€"coupled with the broader trends in overall health care costsâ€"is unsustainable to society as a whole. Making Medicines Affordable examines patient access to affordable and effective therapies, with emphasis on drug pricing, inflation in the cost of drugs, and insurance design. This report explores structural and policy factors influencing drug pricing, drug access programs, the emerging role of comparative effectiveness assessments in payment policies, changing finances of medical practice with regard to drug costs and reimbursement, and measures to prevent drug shortages and foster continued innovation in drug development. It makes recommendations for policy actions that could address drug price trends, improve patient access to affordable and effective treatments, and encourage innovations that address significant needs in health care.
