WHO Updates List of Essential Medicines Like Cancer, Cardiovascular

VIVA – The World Health Organization (WHO) has updated its guidelines for essential medicines to include cancer, infectious disease, heart conditions, cardiovascular, and more. 

During its meeting in April, WHO’s review committee considered over 100 therapeutics before recommending 24 medicines for adults and 12 for children to be added to the Model Lists of Essential Medicines (EML) and Essential Medicines for Children (EMLc).

The additions bring the total number of medications on the EML and EMLc to 502 and 361, respectively.

Updated every two years, the lists are registers of medications that WHO considers to be minimum requirements for every health care system to have available. 

The lists are internationally recognized guides for countries’ health systems, helping them prioritize medications that are effective and affordable. Each addition, according to WHO, is considered essential to address key public health needs.

“Essential medicines are those that satisfy the priority health care needs of a population,” the report said. 

“They are intended to be available in functioning health systems at all times, in appropriate dosage forms, of assured quality and at prices individuals and health systems can afford.”

New on the 2023 list is medications to treat multiple sclerosis or MS, a chronic, often fatal nervous system disease that affects 2.8 million people around the world, according to WHO. The new guidelines include three medications to slow its progression.

One of them, rituximab, is normally used to treat some cancers and autoimmune diseases, but the WHO guidelines recommend off-label use for MS due to strong evidence of its efficacy and safety.

“Given the evidence base and the increased affordability of rituximab, it has been prioritized over on-label alternatives as an essential medicine to treat relapsing-remitting and progressive MS,” said Dr. Benedikt Huttner, the EML team lead, in a statement.

The guidelines also recommend, for the first time, “polypills” to treat heart disease and other cardiovascular issues.