Access to medicines

WHO's advocacy campaign

WHO's advocacy campaign has focused on promoting equitable access to health services, and in particular to medicines. The campaign has been rewarded with two successes: the price of two of the five existing medicines for VL has been reduced (by 90% for liposomal amphotericin B and by 60% for meglumine antimoniate); and two new medicines have been included in the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines (17th edition) (paromomycin in 2007 and liposomal amphotericin B in 2008). In addition, WHO, together with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, investigated a counterfeit product for visceral leishmaniasis that was used in Bangladesh in 2008, until the drug was finally banned by the Government.