The World Health Organisation is calling for better data on the use of drugs in children, criticized their high price and published the first international list of essential pediatric meds, APM Europe reports. Launching the ‘Make Medicines Child Size’ campaign, the WHO is targeting drugs, including antibiotics, asthma and pain medications, that needed to be better tailored to children’s needs.

The agency called for further R&D of combination pills for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, as well as “appropriate child therapy for a number of neglected tropical diseases”. Each year about 10 million children do not reach their fifth birthday and, of these, approximately 6 million die of treatable conditions and could be saved if needed meds were readily available, safe, effective and affordable, the WHO argues.

Howard Zucker, WHO’s Assistant Director-General, says that many many children “don’t stand a chance because the medicines are either not appropriate for their age, don’t reach them or are priced too high – up to three times the price of adult drugs.”

To help tackle the problem, the agency has drawn up the first international List of Essential Medicines for Children, containing 206 products deemed safe for children that tackle priority conditions. (This is the list). “But a lot remains to be done. There are priority medicines that have not been adapted for children’s use or are not available when needed,” says Hans Hogerzeil, the U.N. agency’s director of medicines policy and standards.

The WHO adds that while the impoverished nations may be short of pediatric medss, in the West, pediatric data on drugs used in children is woefully short, APM writes. “In industrialized societies more than half of the children are prescribed medicines dosed for adults and not authorised for use in children. In developing countries, the problem is compounded by lower access to medicines,” according to the agency.

Elsewhere, the WHO said it was continuing work on an internet portal dedicated to drug trials in children and was negotiating with governments to get them to change their legal regulatory requirements for children’s medicines.

Source: APM Europe (subscription may be required)