Brhlikova P, Babar Z-U-D, Pollock AM. Establishing links between drug registers and essential medicines lists. Abstract. European Drug Utilization Conference 2025

Abstract

Background

Access to essential medicines remains suboptimal in many countries. Recent studies examining the registration of medicines at country level show that a significant proportion of essential medicines do not have any corresponding products registered for use at country level and therefore cannot be available at all times. There is an urgent need to close this public health gap by linking the data on national drug registers to the essential medicines lists.

Methods

This study reviews available evidence on registration of essential medicines, potential benefits of and prerequisites for the data linkage between national drug registers and essential medicines lists. 

Results

A small number of studies comparing drug registers and essential medicines lists have been conducted. The comparisons are limited by the availability of information on registered products and work needed to complete the comparisons. Available comparisons identified under-registered essential medicines, over-registered non-essential medicines, locally manufactured essential and non-essential products. 

Conclusion

Linking the data on drug registers to the essential medicines lists require digitalized drug registers and development of common data standards to allow routine monitoring. The information on the gaps in the registration of essential medicine will  enable medicines regulators and health policy makers to take steps to prioritize essential medicines.