Reforming the World Health Organization's Essential Medicines List: Essential but Unaffordable

Thomas J Hwang; Aaron S Kesselheim; Kerstin N Vokinger

doi:10.1001/jama.2022.19459

Reforming the World Health Organization's Essential Medicines List: Essential but Unaffordable

JAMA. 2022 Nov 8;328(18):1807-1808. doi: 10.1001/jama.2022.19459.

Authors

Thomas J Hwang^{1

2}, Aaron S Kesselheim², Kerstin N Vokinger^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Urological Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts.
² Program on Regulation, Therapeutics, and Law (PORTAL), Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
³ Institute of Law and Laboratory for Technology, Markets, and Regulation, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

PMID: 36279114
DOI: 10.1001/jama.2022.19459

No abstract available

Plain language summary

This Viewpoint proposes restructuring the WHO Essential Medicines List to remove consideration of cost and cost-effectiveness from the expert committee reviews of clinical effectiveness, safety, and public health value, and chartering a new framework for pooled global negotiation and procurement of costly medicines included in the list.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Drugs, Essential* / economics
Drugs, Essential* / standards
Global Health* / economics
Global Health* / standards
Health Care Reform* / economics
Health Care Reform* / standards
World Health Organization*

Substances

Drugs, Essential