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WHO Adds Diabetes Drugs to Essential Medicines List, Aims to Boost Global Access
5 Sep
Summary
- WHO adds GLP-1 drugs to treat diabetes to essential medicines list
- Aims to improve global access to these costly treatments
- Includes drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro for diabetes with cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, or obesity
In a significant move, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recently added GLP-1 drugs used to treat diabetes to its essential medicines list. This list, which includes 523 medicines for adults and 374 for children, is a catalogue of the drugs the WHO believes should be available in all functioning health systems.
The addition of these diabetes treatments, such as Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and Eli Lilly's Mounjaro, is seen as a potential catalyst for improving global access to these costly drugs. The WHO's expert committee has specifically included the active ingredients in these medications to treat Type 2 diabetes in conjunction with established cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, or obesity.
While the drugs were initially developed for diabetes, they have also become popular weight-loss treatments under different brand names. However, the WHO has stopped short of adding them to the list solely for the purpose of obesity treatment, as it did earlier this year.
The WHO's decision to include these diabetes drugs on the essential medicines list is a clear indication of their importance in managing the growing global burden of the disease. With over 800 million people worldwide living with diabetes as of 2022, the availability of these effective treatments is crucial.
The WHO's move is expected to encourage generic drugmakers to produce these products, which will help improve access when the patents on the original drugs begin to expire next year. This is particularly important given the high prices that have limited access to these medicines in the past.
