(NewsNation) — The World Health Organization has added drugs intended to treat diabetes to its essential medicines list in hopes the classification will improve global access to the costly drugs.
The list, consisting of 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. In the past, including a drug — for instance, HIV treatments in the early 2000s — has helped to ensure access for people in poorer countries.
The expert committee added the active ingredients in Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro to the list to treat type 2 diabetes in conjunction with established cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease or obesity.
The WHO, however, stopped short of adding Ozempic and Mounjaro to their list for obesity alone.
The drugs were initially developed for diabetes but have also become hugely popular weight loss drugs under different brand names. The WHO stopped short of adding them to treat obesity alone, as it also did in 2023.
“The new editions of essential medicines lists mark a significant step toward expanding access to new medicines with proven clinical benefits and with high potential for global public health impact,” said Dr. Yukiko Nakatani, assistant director-general for health systems, access and data.
The health agency launched the list of drugs in 1977 to promote better access to medicine in developing countries.
Reuters contributed to this report.