This Essential Medicines List (EML) for Ghana is part of the Ministry of Health's continual effort to rationalise the use and management of drugs in the country. The Essential Medicines are those that satisfy the priority health care needs of the population and are selected with due regard to public health relevance, evidence on efficacy and safety, and comparative cost-effectiveness.

The criteria are:

• Drug selection should be based on the results of efficacy and safety evaluations obtained in controlled clinical trials and epidemiological studies, and on the performance in general use in a variety of medical settings;

• When several drugs are available for the same indication, only the drug and the pharmaceutical form that provides the more convenient benefit/risk ratio should be selected;

• When two or more drugs are therapeutically equivalent, the selection should fall on:

- the drug that has been more thoroughly investigated,
- the drug with the most favourable pharmacokinetic properties,
- the drug with the lowest cost, calculated on the basis of the whole course of treatment,
- the drug with which health workers are already familiar,
- the drug for which economically convenient manufacturing is available in the country,
- the drug which shows better stability at the available storage conditions;

A fixed dose combinations should be accepted only if clinical documentation justifies the concomitant use of more than one drug, and the combination provides a proven advantage over single compounds administered separately in therapeutic effect, safety, patients' compliance or cost.

The fifth (2004) edition of the EML has 84 deletions of medicines from the fourth (2000) edition and 48 additions, partly to take into consideration the new WHO Model List of Essential List particularly the inclusion of anti-retroviral medicines. In addition, the use of British Approved Names (BAN) in previous edition has been superseded in the current one by the adoption and use of recommended International Non-proprietary Names (rINN).

A BRIEF UPDATE ON CURRENT EML Back to Top

The current edition's name is Essential Medicines List (EML). The name of the 4 th edition was Essential Drugs List (EDL).

GUIDE TO THE LIST

Note that a drug deleted from a section may not completely be out of the EML. For example, KERATOPLASIC AND KERATOLYTIC AGENTS including Salicylic Acid Ointment 2% were all deleted, but Salicylic Acid Ointment 2% is under ASTRINGENT AGENTS. Again, the strength or the dosage form of a drug may be deleted, but another strength or dosage form of the same drug may be introduced. For example, Amodiaquine Tablet, 200mg has been taken out whereas Amodiaquine Tablets, 75mg, 150mg have been introduced. Copies of the EML are available at the Ministry of Health through the Ghana National Drugs Programme (GNDP). You can also Download the PDF content of the EML.

Contact Information
E-mail: gndp@ighmail.com.
Tel: + 233-21 661670/71
Fax: + 233-21 664309