Government adds Cancer, Hepatitis C and HIV drugs to the list of essential medicines

The Government has added 106 drugs including that of Cancer, HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C to the list of essential medicines. The move will ensure their availability across India at affordable prices. This also takes the total number of items in the list to 376.

style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">In a revision of the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) by the Health Ministry's core committee, 106 medicines were added while 70 were deleted after a series of meetings and consultations across the country. A notification by the Health Ministry said that the NLEM, 2015 has been prepared adhering to the basic principles of efficacy, safety, cost-effectiveness and consideration of diseases as public health problems in India.