WHO and UNICEF want child medicines to be a development priority

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) have jointly put forward a plan to boost access to essential medicines for children, the two agencies said on Monday.

According to WHO and UNICEF, 10 million children die every year, many of them from diarrhoea, HIV/AIDS, malaria, respiratory track infection or pneumonia. Effective interventions exist for those illnesses but there's a lack of knowledge of how best to use the available medicines in children, and a lack of paediatric formulations of the medicines.

WHO and UNICEF's joint plan to boost access to essential medicines for children was delivered following an international meeting held at WHO's headquarters in Geneva on August 9-10.

"Children are often hailed as the hope and future of humanity, but they don't benefit enough from pharmaceutical research and technology," said Dr Howard Zucker, assistant director-general at WHO. "Too often, the right medicines for children, in the right dosages and formulations are missing from the spectrum of available treatment options. So WHO and UNICEF will work quickly with partners to change this," he said.

During the two-day discussion, a mix of more than 20 developed and developing countries, non-governmental organisations, regulatory agencies, UNICEF and WHO staff prioritised a long-needed approach to overall paediatric care.

A top priority resulting from the meeting is to dramatically expand access to much needed child-focused formulations such as fixed dose combinations (several pills in one), which is crucial for children's correct use of medicines and treatment adherence.

The plan also calls for the improvement of medicines and prescribing guidelines addressing the entire range of infant and child care needs.

Experts at the meeting warned that without a model of best practice guidelines and paediatric formulations, and a buy-in at national levels right down to local care centres, children - who in many countries make up half of the population - will continue to be considered as therapeutic orphans.

The plan will immediately be sent to countries for feedback on how best to implement the recommendations at the local level. In addition, WHO will consider several children's medicines for inclusion in the WHO Essential Medicines List in March 2007.