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.