This list beganwith 208 identified medicines and has grown to include 460 differentpharmaceuticals. WHO works with partners and Member States to strengthen regulation,including post-marketing surveillance, and to eliminate substandard andfalsified medicines. They are thelargest public expenditure on health after personal costs in many low-incomecountries, and the expense is a major cause of household impoverishment anddebt. High prices, misuse of drugs and poor or unreliabledrug quality contribute to this issue. However, globalized trade can undermine regulation, and in resource-limited settings especially, incidence of substandard or falsified medicines is growing.
WHO’s role, mandate and activities to counter the world drug problem
Drug resistance is a major challenge to prevention and treatment efforts. Such drugs are usually only given one code and this may be a problem for users in countries where other uses are predominant. Substandard and falsified medical products This second review of the world medicines situation (first published in 1988 as The WorldDrug Situation) presents the available evidence on global production,…
- These include reduction in non-medical opioid use, mortality and morbidity (including due to opioid overdose, HIV and viral hepatitis), lowering risk of crime and incarceration, better retention in treatment, quality of life and overall wellbeing.
- GDG members were selected by WHO technical staff based on their technical expertise, their role as end-users (e.g., programme managers and healthcare providers), and their representation of affected communities.
- More than 36 million years of healthy life loss (DALY) were attributable to drug use in 2019.
- Substandard and falsified medical products
- Psychoactive drugs have different degrees of restriction of availability, depending on their risks to health and therapeutic usefulness, and classified according to a hierarchy of schedules at both national and international levels.
Global status report on alcohol and health and treatment of substance use disorders
This Centre is located at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) and the main activities of the Centre are drawn up in an agreement between the WHO Headquarters and the Government of Norway. There are also international differences between PDDs, which can be up to four or five fold higher/lower. When there is a substantial discrepancy between the PDD and the DDD, it is important to take this into consideration when evaluating and interpreting drug utilization figures. The PDD will give the average daily amount of a drug that is actually prescribed.
ATC 3rd& 4th levels
The first edition was published in 2013 and summarized the evidence of drug use prevention at the global level. WHO drug information provides an overview of topics of current relevance relating to drug development and regulation. The Global status report on alcohol and health and treatment of substance use disorders presents a comprehensive overview of alcohol consumption, alcohol-related… WHO recommends that essential medicines, including those that are controlled, be available to all patients at all times at a price that the individual… Access to medicines is essential for attainment of universal health coverage, which is central to achievement of the health-related Sustainable Development… More than 36 million years of healthy life loss (DALY) were attributable to drug use in 2019.
Drug overdose: a film about life
Strengthening access to essential medicines Millennium Development Goal 8E aims for affordable access to essential medicines.Essential medicines, as defined by WHO, are those that “satisfy… This report provides a synthesis of the outcomes of the first paediatric drug optimization exercise that was held for Malaria. The PADO for epilepsy exercise aimed to support the identification of short- and long term priorities for epilepsy medicines for the paediatric age group,…
Paediatric drug optimization for epilepsy: meeting report, 1-2 July 2025
Opioid overdose is easily Drug Abuse Treatment reversed with the opioid antidote naloxone and with basic life… There is growing concern around the world about drug use and road safety. In 2013, an estimated 181.8 million people aged years… Joint UNESCO, UNODC and WHO publication on education sector responses to substance use in 2017 UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural…
Guidelines
- 2nd WHO Forum on alcohol, drugs and addictive behaviours
- 1st WHO Forum on alcohol, drugs and addictive behaviours
- For example, low strength finasteride tablets used for treatment of baldness are classified under D11AX Other dermatologicals and the high strength tablets used for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) are classified under G04C Drugs used in BPH.
- In 2022, approximately 60 million people globally engaged in non-medical opioid use, including the use of drugs like heroin, morphine, codeine, fentanyl, methadone, tramadol, and other similar substances.
- DDDs sometimes need to be reviewed because dosages may change over time, e.g. due to the introduction of new main indications or new research making it necessary to change the DDD.
Tanzania making steady progress in access to essential medicines and health products as new challenges emerge Although it was not designed as a global standard, the listnow acts as a guide for the procurement and supply of medicines at the nationaland local level. Universal health coverage can only be achieved when thereis affordable access to safe, effective and quality medicines and healthproducts. Equal access and the reliable supply of medicines is anongoing goal of WHO and global health delivery systems, the achievement ofwhich is hampered by several factors.
Target 3.5 of UN Sustainable Development Goal 3 sets out a commitment by governments to strengthen the prevention and treatment of substance abuse. Since its creation, WHO has played an important role within the UN system in addressing the world drug problem.
Since then there have been incredible advances in drugs for a wide range of health concerns including disease, mental health and other conditions. WHO updates guidelines on opioid dependence treatment and overdose prevention The UNGASS marked a shift in the overall drug policy discourse to highlight the public health and human rights dimensions of the world drug problem and to achieve a better balance between supply reduction and public health measures. About 296 million people aged had used psychoactive drugs in 2021 and about 39.5 million people are estimated to be affected by drug use disorders (harmful pattern of drug use or drug dependence).
Drug consumption can be expressed in cost, number of units, number of prescriptions or by the physical quantity of drugs. Building on the value of the BPPL as a global tool, tailoring the list to country and regional contexts can account for regional variations in pathogen distribution and the AMR burden. Carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (CRPA) infection moving from critical to high priority in BPPL 2024 mirrors recent reports of decreases in global resistance. Gram-negative bacteria have built-in abilities to find new ways to resist treatment and can pass along genetic material that allows other bacteria to become drug-resistant as well. The updated BPPL incorporates new evidence and expert insights to guide research and development (R&D) for new antibiotics and promote international coordination to foster innovation. AMR occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites no longer respond to medicines, making people sicker and increasing the risk of disease spread, illness and deaths.
Access to Medicines
Despite this transition, investment in R&D and other prevention and control strategies for CRPA remains important, given its significant burden in some regions. The fact that third-generation cephalosporin-resistant Enterobacterales are listed as a standalone item within the critical priority category emphasizes their burden and need for targeted interventions, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Changes between the 2017 and 2024 lists “Antimicrobial resistance jeopardizes our ability to effectively treat high burden infections, such as tuberculosis, leading to severe illness and increased mortality rates,» said Dr Jérôme Salomon, WHO’s Assistant Director-General for Universal Health Coverage, Communicable and Noncommunicable Diseases. These pathogens require increased attention, especially in vulnerable populations including paediatric and elderly populations, particularly in resource-limited settings. Medium priority pathogens include Group A and B Streptococci (both new to the 2024 list), Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Haemophilus influenzae, which present a high disease burden.
DDDs sometimes need to be reviewed because dosages may change over time, e.g. due to the introduction of new main indications or new research making it necessary to change the DDD. Estimating prevalence of drug use in children is not possible by using crude sales data presented in DDDs owing to the variability of children’s doses. DDDs provide a fixed unit of measurement independent of price, currencies, package size and strength enabling the researcher to assess trends in drug utilization and to perform comparisons between population groups.
Saudi Arabia: Council of Health Insurance Drug Formulary 2025 (English)
The PDD can be determined from studies of prescriptions, medical or pharmacy records, and it is important to relate the PDD to the diagnosis on which the drug is used. DDDs are normally assigned based on use in adults.For medical products approved for use in children, the dose recommendations will differ based on age and body weight. The DDDs are allocated to drugs by the WHO Collaborating Centre in Oslo, working in close association with the WHO International Working Group on Drug Statistics Methodology. This limits comparisons of drug consumption at an international level.
In 2022, approximately 60 million people globally engaged in non-medical opioid use, including the use of drugs like heroin, morphine, codeine, fentanyl, methadone, tramadol, and other similar substances. Currently, WHO is convening a guideline development group (GDG) for update of both guidelines with an aim to improve availability and access to treatment of opioid dependence and reduce the number of deaths from opioid overdose by providing evidence-based recommendations on the psychosocially assisted pharmacological treatment and interventions on prevention and management of opioid overdose. WHO announces development of updated guidelines for the psychosocially assisted pharmacological treatment of opioid dependence and community management of opioid overdose Opioid agonist maintenance treatment (OAMT) for people with opioid dependence is proven to be safe and effective in addressing a broad range of health… Other high priority pathogens, such as antibiotic-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Enterococcus faecium, present unique public health challenges, including persistent infections and resistance to multiple antibiotics, necessitating targeted research and public health interventions. Evidence, including systematic reviews, about treatment of opioid dependence and management of opioid overdose will be presented to the GDG.
Working to increase access to essentialpharmaceuticals while limiting the spread of falsified products is at the heart of WHO’s global strategy on medicines. Quality-assured, safe and effective medicines, vaccines and medicaldevices are fundamental to a functioning health system. Drug dependence treatment and care in the Republic of Serbia Meeting of technical experts on public health responses to cannabis use The publication was invited by resolution 58/5 of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs entitled “Supporting the collaboration of public health and justice… WHO Drug Information provides an overview of topics relating to drug development and regulation that are of current relevance and importance, and includes the lists of proposed and recommended International Nonproprietary Names for Pharmaceutical Substances (INN).
Today there are thousands of drugs on the market able to prevent, treat and lessen the impact of ailments that would have been fatal just a few generations ago. 1st WHO Forum on alcohol, drugs and addictive behaviours 2nd WHO Forum on alcohol, drugs and addictive behaviours These guidelines contain recommendations on the identification and management of substance use and substance use disorders for health care services which… Cannabis is globally the most commonly used psychoactive substance under international control.