Essential Medicines
This page provides links to descriptions of activities, reports, news and events, as well as contacts and cooperating partners in the various WHO programmes and offices working on this topic. Also shown are links to related web sites and topics.
Essential medicines are those that satisfy the priority health care needs of the population. They are selected with due regard to public health relevance, evidence on efficacy and safety, and comparative cost-effectiveness. Essential medicines are intended to be available within the context of functioning health systems at all times in adequate amounts, in the appropriate dosage forms, with assured quality and adequate information, and at a price the individual and the community can afford. The implementation of the concept of essential medicines is intended to be flexible and adaptable to many different situations; exactly which medicines are regarded as essential remains a national responsibility.
RELATED SITES
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Medicines
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Health Technology and Pharmaceuticals
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Prequalification of Medicines Programme
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Selection of essential medicines
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Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health (CIPIH)
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Essential medicines and national medicines policy (Western Pacific Region)
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WHO and the Millennium Development Goals
FACT SHEETS
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The safety of medicines
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The WHO prequalification project
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Substandard and counterfeit medicines
PUBLICATIONS
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Essential medicines lists
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Publications: medicines
RELATED LINKS
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AIDS Medicines and Diagnostics Service
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Selection and rational use of essential medicines
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Health action in crises - essential medicines
FEATURES
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10 facts about essential medicines
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