Essential medicines

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.

Essential medicines are those that satisfy the priority health care needs of the population.

Criteria for selection of essential medicines

Essential medicines are selected with due regard to disease prevalence and public health relevance, evidence of clinical efficacy and safety, and, within the same therapeutic group, comparative costs and 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 at a price the individual and the community can afford.

The Model List is a guide for the development of national and institutional essential medicine lists. It was not designed as a global standard. However, for the past 40 years the Model List has led to a global acceptance of the concept of essential medicines as a powerful means to promote health equity. Most countries have national lists and some have provincial or state lists as well. National lists of essential medicines usually relate closely to national guidelines for clinical health care practice which are used for the training and supervision of health workers. 

The concept of essential medicines is forward-looking. It incorporates the need to regularly update medicines selections to reflect new therapeutic options and changing therapeutic needs; the need to ensure medicine quality; and the need for continued development of better medicines, medicines for emerging diseases, and medicines to meet changing resistance patterns.

Once thought of as relevant only in resource-constrained settings, the WHO Model Lists are now seen as equally relevant to high-, middle- and low-income countries, particularly with the inclusion of new, highly effective and expensive medicines in more recent years.