who medicines strategy - libdoc.who.int - World Health Organization

WHO MEDICINES STRATEGY 2004-2007 | 118EO 7.3Independent and reliablemedicines information identified,disseminated, and promotedRationaleProgressReliable, objective, and evidence-basedThe major advance in this area has been theinformation is the foundation of rationalproduction of the WHO Model Formulary andmedicines use. With the development ofthe WHO Medicines Library (see also EO 7.2). Inspecialized networks and websites, access to such addition, a manual on the production of Nationalinformation is readily available in most parts of or Institutional Formularies based on the WHOthe world where there is access to the Internet. Model Formulary will be released in 2004.However, this still leaves many countries without This manual will be issued as a CD-ROM, alsoaccess to independent and reliable medicinescontaining the WHO Model Formulary.information. In a global survey carried out in1999, only 50% of 138 reporting countries hadDrug Information Centres. The regional rangewas 40%-89%. The lack of independent andreliable medicines information in many countriesis compounded by the pharmaceutical industry’sinvestment in marketing activities, includingdirect-to-consumer advertising. In the USA, forexample, the pharmaceutical industry spentabout US$ 15 billion on promotional activities in2000. 61