{"id":46930,"date":"2025-09-06T08:11:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T08:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/46930\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T08:11:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T08:11:08","slug":"patient-groups-cheer-as-the-who-adds-diabetes-and-cystic-fibrosis-drugs-to-its-essential-medicines-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/46930\/","title":{"rendered":"Patient groups cheer as the WHO adds diabetes and cystic fibrosis drugs to its essential medicines list"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For the first time, the World Health Organization has added various high-cost treatments for diabetes and cystic fibrosis to its list of essential medicines, a move that patient advocates hope will usher in a new era of more accessible drugs to countless people in low- and middle-income countries.<\/p>\n<p>First published in 1977, <a href=\"https:\/\/iris.who.int\/bitstream\/handle\/10665\/382243\/B09474-eng.pdf?sequence=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">the list<\/a> is used by governments as a guide to improving supply chains and controlling costs. In years past, adding a drug has helped boost access for people in lower-income countries, such as for HIV treatments in the early 2000s. The list has been adopted in more than 150 countries and now includes a total of 523 essential medicines for adults and 374 for children.<\/p>\n<p>The latest version added Eli Lilly\u2019s Mounjaro and Novo Nordisk\u2019s Ozempic to treat type 2 diabetes in conjunction with cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, or obesity. Both drugs belong to a class of medicines known as GLP-1s. The same companies also sell two other such drugs that have been approved by health regulators for combating obesity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-text\">STAT+ Exclusive Story<\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-login\">Already have an account? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/login\/\" data-stat-login=\"\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker login cta\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Log in<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"restricted-content-breaker-bg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/stat-plus-breaker-bg.png\" alt=\"STAT+\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/stat-plus\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"stat-plus-logo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/wp-content\/themes\/stat\/images\/stat-plus-logo-white.svg\" alt=\"STAT+\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tThis article is exclusive to STAT+ subscribers<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tUnlock this article \u2014 plus in-depth analysis, newsletters, premium events, and news alerts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-content-breaker-wrapper-cta mobile\">Already have an account? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/login\/\" data-stat-login=\"\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker login cta mobile\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Log in<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tIndividual plans<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tGroup plans<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/stat-plus\/\" class=\"stat-button view-all\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker view all plans\" aria-label=\"View All Plans\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">View All Plans<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-content-text\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tTo read the rest of this story subscribe to STAT+.\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/stat-plus\/\" class=\"stat-button restricted-button\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker subscribe cta 1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Subscribe<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the first time, the World Health Organization has added various high-cost treatments for diabetes and cystic fibrosis&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[275],"tags":[7593,11023,18,135,475,474,19,17,2900,12318,2101,2850,4082],"class_list":{"0":"post-46930","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-biotechnology","9":"tag-drug-pricing","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-health-care","13":"tag-healthcare","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-pharmaceuticals","17":"tag-policy","18":"tag-public-health","19":"tag-stat","20":"tag-who"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}