The World Health Organization has added GLP-1 drugs to treat diabetes to its essential medicines list alongside treatments for cystic fibrosis and cancer, and said it hopes this will help improve global access to the costly drugs.

The list , consisting of 523 medicines for adults and 374 for children, is a catalogue of the drugs the WHO believes should be available in all functioning health systems. In the past, including a drug has helped boost access for people in poorer countries, such as for HIV treatments in the early 2000s.

"Rather than letting price be a disqualifying factor, the committee views inclusion in the essential medicines list as a potential catalyst for access," Dr. Lorenzo Moja, head of the WHO secretariat overseeing the list, told Reuters.

The expert committee added

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