Revised procedure for updating WHO’s Model List of Essential Drugs

Overview

In 1975, the Twenty-eighth World Health Assembly requested the Director-General to assist Member States by “advising on the selection and procurement, at reasonable cost, of essential drugs of established quality corresponding to their national health needs” (resolution WHA28.66). The first WHO Model List of Essential Drugs was prepared by a WHO Expert Committee in 1977.1 In 1978, the Thirty-first World Health Assembly (in resolution WHA31.32) requested the Director-General, inter alia, “to continue to identify the drugs and vaccines which, in the light of scientific knowledge, are indispensable for primary health care and control of diseases prevalent in the population, and to update periodically this aspect of the report of the WHO Expert Committee on the Selection of Essential Drugs” and “to cooperate with Member States in formulating drug policies and management programmes that are relevant to the health needs of populations and are aimed at ensuring access of the whole population to essential drugs at a cost the country can afford”.