GlobalEssentialMedicinesDatabase.xlsx
Global Essential Medicines Database
In June of 2017, we searched the WHO Essential Medicines and Health Products Information Portal, an online repository that contains hundreds of publication on medicines and health products related to WHO priorities, and a full-section dedicated to national essential medicines lists (EMLs). A WHO information specialist actively searched for updated versions of national EMLs, including national formularies, reimbursement lists, and lists based on standard treatment guidelines.
We included all national EMLs that were posted on the WHO’s NEMLs Repository irrespective of publication date and language. When we found more than one national EML from the same country, we used the most recent. We excluded documents that were not EMLs, such as prescribing guidelines. We also included the 20th edition of the WHO Model EML (2017) in this database.
From each EML we abstracted medicines using International Nonproprietary Names (INNs). For medicines whose names were not in English we used the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification system, if available, or translated the names with the help of Google Translate. We listed each medicine individually, whether it was part of a combination product or not. We treated as the same medicine bases and their salts (e.g. promethazine hydrochloride and promethazine) as well as different compounds of the same vitamin or mineral (e.g. ferrous fumarate and ferrous sulfate). We excluded diagnostic agents, antiseptics, disinfectants, and saline solutions.
In this database "1" and "0" indicate the presence or absence of the medicine respectively on an EML.
