Medicines

Universal health coverage can only be achieved when there is affordable access to safe, effective and quality medicines and health products. WHO works with partners and Member States to strengthen regulation, including post-marketing surveillance, and to eliminate substandard and falsified medicines. It also develops international norms and standards so that countries worldwide can regulate health products and technologies consistently.

Equal access and the reliable supply of medicines is an ongoing goal of WHO and global health delivery systems, the achievement of which is hampered by several factors. The first is regulatory issues, which can affect how medicines are bought to market, create lag times and cause the supply of medicines in some areas of the globe to be delayed long after they are available elsewhere. High prices, misuse of drugs and poor or unreliable drug quality contribute to this issue.

The first synthetic pharmaceutical, Aspirin, was introduced in 1897. Since then there have been incredible advances in drugs for a wide range of health concerns including disease, mental health and other conditions. 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. At the same time, antimicrobial resistance is challenging the effectiveness of many commonly used medicines in one of the most concerning threats to global health today.