The World Health Organization has included GLP-1 medications in the essential medicines list for diabetes treatment, in addition to therapies for cystic fibrosis and cancer. This decision is aimed at enhancing worldwide availability of these expensive drugs. The WHO’s list, comprising 523 medications for adults and 374 for children, serves as a guide of essential drugs that should be accessible within all functional healthcare systems. Historically, the inclusion of a drug in this list has facilitated access, particularly in low-income nations, such as the case with HIV treatments in the early 2000s.
Dr. Lorenzo Moja, overseeing the WHO secretariat managing the list, emphasized that rather than price being a barrier, inclusion in the essential medicines list is seen as a means to promote access. The expert committee has added the active components in Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro to address Type 2 diabetes in conjunction with existing cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, or obesity.
While these drugs were initially developed for diabetes, they have gained popularity as weight-loss medications under different brand names. However, the WHO refrained from adding them for standalone obesity treatment, as it did in 2023, to provide clear guidance on the most suitable patients for the therapies. The WHO highlighted that the high costs of medications like semaglutide and tirzepatide are limiting access, suggesting that encouraging generic drug manufacturers to produce these drugs when patents expire next year would be beneficial.
A Novo Nordisk spokesperson expressed the company’s commitment to expanding access to its treatments. Several companies are already working on developing generic versions. According to the WHO, over 800 million individuals globally were living with diabetes in 2022, and there are over one billion people with obesity. Earlier this year, a WHO memo indicated a forthcoming recommendation for using these medications for obesity, a separate step from their inclusion in the essential list.
The WHO’s list also features Vertex Pharmaceutical’s combination therapy for cystic fibrosis, Trikafta or Kaftrio, and Merck’s Keytruda, a prominent cancer immunotherapy drug for treating cervical cancers, colorectal cancers, and metastasized non-small cell lung cancers. Additionally, rapid-acting insulin analogs from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, among others, have been included in the list for managing Type 1, Type 2, and gestational diabetes.
