Access to Essential Cancer Medicines - Review of the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines 

The WHO Model List of Essential Medicines (EML) presents a set of medicines that are considered to be cost-effective and of critical public health importance.  The WHO EML informs national and global decision making on medicine procurement; this means that the inclusion of a particular medicine in the WHO EML can significantly impact its availability worldwide.

In April 2013, the WHO EML Expert Committee met to perform a biennial review of the List. UICC and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute submitted proposals to add two cancer drugs to the list: imatinib for the treatment of Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) and trastuzumab for breast cancer, in view of the dramatic difference that these medicines will make to patient survival. 

UICC has also offered to draw on UICC membership expertise across professions, the spectrum of cancer types and geographies to support WHO in a formal section review of the antineoplastic medicines by its next session in 2015. 

We are currently awaiting the decision of the Expert Committee on the above proposals. The updated WHO EML is expected to be available in the third quarter of 2013. Please visit this page for further updates.