Professor Meets with WHO Director-General.

Veronika Wirtz, associate professor of global health, met with Tedros Abhanom Gebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), to discuss essential medicines access on December 8 at WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

Wirtz and Hans Hogerzeil, one of Wirtz’s co-chairs on The Lancet Commission on Essential Medicines Policies and the former WHO director for essential medicines and pharmaceutical policies, and Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of The Lancet, met with Tedros to build on the commission’s report released in late 2016, titled “Essential Medicines for Universal Health Coverage.”

“There is a common understanding that access to medicines is a core element of universal health coverage, and that there is great urgency to accelerate progress towards this important Sustainable Development Goal,” Wirtz says. The director-general and his senior leadership team “enthusiastically responded to our ideas and were eager to collaborate,” she says.

WHO defines essential medicines as those that satisfy the priority healthcare needs of the population. The Lancet report examines the progress and challenges in essential medicines’ availability, affordability, quality, and use around the world, and proposes actionable recommendations for the next decade.

In the hourlong meeting, Tedros, Wirtz, Hogerzeil, and Horton discussed the commission’s proposal that the WHO create an independent accountability mechanism to monitor countries’ progress toward achieving universal access to essential medicines. The first meeting to begin developing that accountability mechanism is planned for Spring 2018 at WHO.

“The WHO does not regularly report on progress on medicine access, and could be more effective in responding to public demands for accountability of governments and key stakeholders,” Wirtz says. “The meeting this spring can lay the foundation for an important measurement and accountability framework to promote access to essential medicines globally.”

Read more about The Lancet Commission on Essential Medicines report.