The World Health Organisation has released a
new list of treatments for hepatitis C, a variety of
cancers (including breast cancer and leukaemia)
and tuberculosis.
In a statement issued on Friday in Geneva,
Switzerland, the global health body said the
published latest edition of its Model List of
Essential Medicines would open the way to
improve access to innovative medicines that
show clear clinical benefits and could have huge
public health impact.
“When new effective medicines emerge to safely
treat serious and widespread diseases, it is vital
to ensure that everyone who needs them can
obtain them. Placing them on the WHO Essential
Medicines List is a first step in that direction,”
the WHO Director-General, Dr. Margaret Chan,
said.

According to the WHO, the list is updated every
two years by an Expert Committee, made up of
recognised specialists from the academia,
research and the medical and pharmaceutical
professions. This year, the UN agency noted that
the committee underscored the urgent need to
take action to promote equitable access and use
of several new highly effective medicines, some
of which are currently too costly even for high-
income countries.

“These include new medicines to treat hepatitis
C, which affects about 150 million people
globally, killing approximately half a million
people each year, when chronic infection
develops into liver cirrhosis or liver cancer. The
disease is present in high- and lower-income
countries alike, with higher concentrations in
several middle- and low-income countries.

“Cancers figure among the leading causes of
illness and death worldwide, with approximately
14 million new cases and 8.2 million cancer-
related deaths in 2012. The number of new cases
is expected to rise by about 70 per cent over the
next two decades. New breakthroughs have been
made in cancer treatment in the last years, which
prompted WHO to revise the full cancer segment
of the Essential Medicines List this year: 52
products were reviewed and 30 treatments
confirmed, with 16 new medicines included in the
list,” the statement added.

The WHO stated further that after about 45 years
of scarce innovation for TB medicines, five new
products were included in the EML. It said four
of these, including bedaquiline and delamanid,
targeted multi-drug-resistant TB.

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