This report presents the recommendations of the WHO Expert Committee responsible for updating the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines. The first part contains a progress report on the new procedures for updating the Model List and the development of the WHO Essential Medicines Library. It continues with a section on changes made in revising the Model List followed by a review of some sections such as hypertensive medicines and fast track procedures for deleting items. Annexes include the 13th version of the Model List and items on the list sorted according to their 5-level Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical classification codes.

Thanks to remarkable advances in modern health care attributable to science, engineering, and medicine, it is now possible to cure or manage illnesses that were long deemed untreatable. At the same time, however, the United States is facing the vexing challenge of a seemingly uncontrolled rise in the cost of health care. Total medical expenditures are rapidly approaching 20 percent of the gross domestic product and are crowding out other priorities of national importance. The use of increasingly expensive prescription drugs is a significant part of this problem, making the cost of biopharmaceuticals a serious national concern with broad political implications. Especially with the highly visible and very large price increases for prescription drugs that have occurred in recent years, finding a way to make prescription medicinesâ€"and health care at largeâ€"more affordable for everyone has become a socioeconomic imperative. Affordability is a complex function of factors, including not just the prices of the drugs themselves, but also the details of an individual's insurance coverage and the number of medical conditions that an individual or family confronts. Therefore, any solution to the affordability issue will require considering all of these factors together. The current high and increasing costs of prescription drugsâ€"coupled with the broader trends in overall health care costsâ€"is unsustainable to society as a whole. Making Medicines Affordable examines patient access to affordable and effective therapies, with emphasis on drug pricing, inflation in the cost of drugs, and insurance design. This report explores structural and policy factors influencing drug pricing, drug access programs, the emerging role of comparative effectiveness assessments in payment policies, changing finances of medical practice with regard to drug costs and reimbursement, and measures to prevent drug shortages and foster continued innovation in drug development. It makes recommendations for policy actions that could address drug price trends, improve patient access to affordable and effective treatments, and encourage innovations that address significant needs in health care.

Neonatal Formulary provides comprehensive guidance on the safe use of the drugs prescribed during pregnancy and commonly given to babies during labour and delivery, as well as during lactation and the first year of life. Treating the journey from pregnancy to parenthood as a continuous event, the new edition contains updated information on how the drugs affect both mother and baby. The first part of the book focuses on drug storage, drug licensing, and drug prescribing. In addition, it explains to why the metabolism of drugs differs in premature and sick infants, and why the practice of extrapolating doses from adult studies is unsafe. Patient safety, excipients, and therapies that affect drugs are also covered. Part 2 consists of monographs for over 250 drugs that may find use in the neonatal unit, and possibly outside it. Each monograph is divided into sections covering use, pharmacology, treatment, drug interactions or other administration, information, supply and administration, and references. The monographs are evidence-based and include links to the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and national guidelines. The third part presents information on additional drugs, and groups of drugs, that are often taken by mothers during pregnancy, labour, or during breast feeding. The drugs discussed in this section all affect the foetus or infant. Containing far more detail than is available in the British National Formulary for Children, and with additional online material featuring updates related to specific drugs and dosing, Neonatal Formulary is an essential guide for neonatologists, neonatal nurses, hospital pharmacists, obstetric staff, advanced nurse practitioners and for all health care professionals caring for pregnant women and their infants in the first year of life.

The sixth edition of The Veterinary Formulary has been updated and revised by 51 expert contributors and reviewed by an advisory committee of veterinarians and pharmacologists. A very well constructed book which is especially necessary to the veterinary practitioner for the day to day management of all diseases, it is also useful to academics, pharmacists and researchers for a quick reference.

Formulary for Laboratory Animals is an invaluable reference for treatment of laboratory animals and pocket pets. Drugs are listed alphabetically and categorized in five sections based on pharmacologic activity and animal species. This at-a-glance pocket reference is valuable for students and practitioners of veterinary medicine, researchers and laboratory technicians who prescribe or administer drugs used on common laboratory animals. The third edition includes a stronger international component, coverage of several new drugs, hundreds of additional dosages, and a thorough update throughout based on the most current research. The third edition also includes a chapter describing how to estimate drug dosages among species using allometric scaling methodology.

Managed Care Pharmacy Practice, Second Edition offers information critical to the development and operation of a managed care pharmacy program. The text also covers the changes that have taken place within the delivery of pharmacy services, as well as the evolving role of pharmacists.

The Medical Formulary of Al-­Samarqandi demonstrates the high development of pharmacology by the Arabs in the Middle Ages. It was far from a dark period in science for it was in this area, as well as in Arabic optics and chemistry, that experimental science first began to develop. This is shown by al-Samarqandi's work which describes many new drugs, chemical processes, and a more advanced pharmacological theory. No part of this work has ever before been brought to the notice of historians of medicine. For the first time, the authors give a complete translation of this Aqrâbōdhīn in order to present a complete picture of the pharmacological knowledge of the day. There is a comprehensive section of Notes and Comments with particular attention being drawn to the present-day usage of old Arabic drugs, the employment of the drugs in the much earlier al-Kindi Medical Formulary, and to the etymological discussion of Arabic plant names not studied in previous works on the subject. Finally there is a Glossary of Arabic-English terms and a selected Bibliography.

Antibiotic resistance is neither a surprising nor a new phenomenon. It is an increasingly worrisome situation, however, because resistance is growing and accelerating while the world's tools for combating it decrease in power and number. In addition, the cost of the problemâ€"especially of multidrug resistanceâ€"in terms of money, mortality, and disability are also rising. This book summarizes a workshop on antimicrobial resistance held by the Forum on Emerging Infections. The goal of the Forum on Emerging Infections is to provide an opportunity for representatives of academia, industry, government, and professional and interest groups to examine and discuss scientific and policy dilemmas of common interest that are specifically related to research on and the prevention, detection, and management of emerging infections. Organized as a topic-by-topic synthesis of presentations and exchanges during the workshop, the book highlights lessons learned, delineates a range of pivotal issues and the problems they raise, and proposes some simplified ideas about possible responses.