[Ip-health] e-drug's discussion of "Expanding the WHO Model Essential Medicines List"

[james.love@keionline.org]

There has been a brief discussion on the e-drug list on the proposal to
expand the WHO model Essential Medicines List to include a new category
for products that are cost effective, "if available at generic prices."
That debate has been "terminated" by the e-drug moderators, in the message
below which also defends the current methodology.

KEI's March 2, 2007 submission to the WHO Expert Committee largely focused
on the policy issue, but did identify products which would be appropriate
for the EML "if available at generic prices."
http://www.keionline.org/misc-docs/eml2March2007.pdf   We will continue to
explore this issue, and welcome comments on the topic.

Jamie

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: [e-drug] Expanding the WHO Model Essential Medicines List (11)
From:    e-drug@healthnet.org
Date:    Thu, May 10, 2007 7:08 am
To:      "E-Drug" <e-drug@healthnet.org>
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E-DRUG:  Expanding the WHO Model Essential Medicines List (11)
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E-drug moderators have agreed that this thread should be terminated for
the moment as we seem to have covered the issues.   The discussion can be
reopened if new lines of thought are contributed.

We would like to confirm that apart from ARV's there are very few patented
medicines on the WHO Model List. While some people suggest that patents
and high costs prevent their inclusion an alternative explanation might be
a lack of significant therapeutic innovation as is seen with neglected
diseases. There have also not been applications for such high cost
medicines as some of those described.

The opportunity exists for those who believe that there are significant
omissions to make submissions for the next committee. As a previous E-Drug
message described, anybody including medical student groups can make a
submission. As the process is evidence based and all applications are
posted on the WHO web site it is easy to see that for at least the last
three meetings, cost was not a significant factor in the rejection of past
applications.

E-DRUG Moderators
e-drug@healthnet.org
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