Get Involved
Governments
Governments are asked to make supply and procurement of medicines for children a priority. This may mean adjusting regulatory and legislative measures to enable safe ethical research and clinical trials in children to ensure that new and existing medicines are safe for use with children; ensuring licensing and labeling requirements for medicines are upgraded; building technical capacity of regulatory authorities to meet WHO standards; and ensuring that health care workers have the skills, resources and capacity to improve use of medicines in children.
Secondly, support will be needed to assist with funding research and development: exploring the need for treatments for specific diseases, researching appropriate dosage forms, or strengthening the regulatory or legislative structures in countries where they do not adequately exist.
Research community and health care providers
There is little knowledge about the effects certain medicines can have on children. The research community is essential in partnering with WHO in carrying out the research required to create and improve children's medicines. WHO looks forward to their continued assistance in setting targets, developing a research strategy and their dedicated research that is central to reaching these goals.
Industry
WHO is mobilizing the support of pharmaceutical and generic manufacturer associations to commit to exploring and addressing the research and development gaps in the area of medicines for children, particularly with respect to dosage forms and clinical trials.
Civil society and health-care providers
Civil society and health-care professionals and their related associations are pivotal to the research effort needed. Not only do they have a strong voice with decision makers, many of them also have essential technical expertise. We encourage them to add their support to the initiative through offering their endorsement which may be posted on this website or referenced by WHO, including references to the initiative in their materials, and raising awareness of the need to improve access and availability to suitable pharmaceutical treatments for children.
Parents and members of the public
Parents and members of the public are encouraged to become informed and educated on the issue and engage in learning more about what their governments, regulatory bodies, research and development institutions, health care practitioners, industry, and manufacturers are doing to address this global need.