Methadone and the opiate substitute buprenorphine have been added to the World Health Organization’s Essential Drugs list, it was announced on Friday, ending nearly two years of lobbying by treatment advocates for inclusion of the drugs on the list.
Inclusion of drugs in the essential drugs list is intended to signal that international experts consider the availability of a drug to be essential to deliver basic health care, and national governments are expected to take note of the recommendation when making policy.
Methadone and buprenorphine are prescribed as substitutes for heroin in order to stop injecting drug use and help addicts stabilise their drug intake. Methadone substitution programmes attempt to help people stop drug use, but the availability of an opiate on prescription is controversial in countries where tight control of narcotics is the over-riding aim of public health policy.
Tenofovir excluded from the list
The essential drugs list also includes antiretroviral drugs, but the nucleotide analogue tenofovir (Viread) has been excluded from the list because manufacturer Gilead Sciences refused to allow WHO to publish interim safety and efficacy data supplied as part of the approval process. The list will be reviewed again in 2007.