Improving affordability of new Essential Cancer Medicines.

Effective cancer care requires investment in health infrastructure, a trained health workforce, and quality-assured, affordable medicines within a sustainable supply chain. To this end, in a major move to increase access to cancer medicines in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), WHO has added ten new cancer therapies to its 21st Model List of Essential Medicines. 1 WHOWorld Health Organization model list of essential medicines: 21st list 2019. World Health Organization, Geneva2019https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/325771Date accessed: July 9, 2019 Google Scholar When WHO labels medicines as essential, it means that they have proven their utility and should be available and affordable to all. Therefore, these medicines should be included in national essential medicines lists, which would enable governments to use scarce resources to select medicines more effectively.