An Analytical Study on Health Ministry’s Decision to Increase the Number of Drugs Covered under the National List of Essential Medicines

Medicines are mainly to perform function of protection, maintenance & restoration of health of people. Medicinal needs are proportionate on the nature of health problems existing within countries. Medicines differ from consumer product because they are not chosen by consumers but recommended/prescribed by consumers. Essential medicines concept came in the mid 1970s in order to improve availability of essential medicines for majority patients, within affordable price range. In spite of government’s hard effort they can not provide medicines for majority of their population. Due to this failure an advanced concept viz., “Limited basic list of medicines” came into existence. The World Health Organization came up with essential medicines concept in 1975 & the first list of essential medicines got published in 1977. Essential medicines are those that satisfy the priority health care needs of the population. They are selected by taking into consideration health relevance, evidence on efficacy, safety & comparative cost effectiveness. Essential medicines are intended to be available at all times in adequate amounts in appropriate dosage forms with assured quality & adequate information & at a price that the individual & community can afford. (WHO-Technical Support Series Number 615 Geneva: 1977) Essential medicines list is divided into two parts ? The Core List presents a list of minimum medicine needs for a basic health care system, listing the most efficacious, safe & cost effective medicines for priority conditions. ? The Complementary list presents essential medicines for priority diseases, for which specialized diagnostic or monitoring facilities, and/or specialist care or specialist training are needed. The first National List of Essential Medicines of India was prepared & released in 1996. The list got revised in 2003 & 2011 respectively. Government of India considered the need for updating NLEM because of disease occurrence, treatment modalities, and introduction of newer medicines & identification of unacceptable risk bearing profile. The recent move of government to increase the list of essential medicines and delete the unnecessary medicines is studied here.