(NewsNation) — The World Health Organization has added drugs intended to treat diabetes to its essential medicines list in hopes the classification will 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 — for instance, HIV treatments in the early 2000s — has helped to ensure access for people in poorer countries.

The expert committee added the active ingredients in Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro to the list to treat type 2 diabetes in conjunction with established cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease or obesity.

The WHO, however, stopped short of adding Ozempic and Mounj

See Full Page