Essential medicines are still essential

The Lancet "The recent inclusion of new expensive medicines has raised many questions. Has the original concept of essential medicines lost its original relevance as a list of basic medicines for resource-constrained settings? Should the list include medicines not yet authorised by stringent regulatory authorities or not easily available? Should the list include medicines for off-label indications? Should the list automatically include any medicine mentioned in a WHO treatment guideline?

Previous expert committees' reports have provided some answers to these questions." (Image © flickr)

• www.thelancet.com