WHO and UNICEF win grant to research children's medicines
The World Health Organization (WHO) has received a US$9.7m grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to work with UNICEF to conduct vital research into children's medicines, with the aim of increasing the number of drugs designed and formulated specifically for children.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has received a US$9.7m grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to work with UNICEF to conduct vital research into children's medicines, with the aim of increasing the number of drugs designed and formulated specifically for children.
Many medicines are currently only designed for adults. More than 50% prescribed for children have either not been developed specifically for them or have not been proven to be effective and safe for their use. Many children therefore lack access to essential treatment because no suitable paediatric dosage or formulation of the necessary medicine exists, or those that do exist are unavailable or too expensive.
"We must take the guesswork out of medicines for children," said Carissa Etienne, assistant director-general at WHO. "Children are suffering and dying from diseases we can treat, and yet we lack the critical evidence needed to deliver appropriate, effective, affordable medicines that might save them."
As an unsafe alternative to missing paediatric medicines, healthcare workers and parents often use fractions of adult dosage forms or prepare makeshift prescriptions of medicines by crushing tablets or dissolving portions of capsules in water. Other challenges include the need for more clinical trials and research to be carried out on paediatric medicines.
"Some progress has been made but too many medicines are still given to children that have never been properly tested for them," said Dr Hans Hogerzeil, director of essential medicines and pharmaceutical policies at WHO. "This work is an excellent example of coordination of United Nations agencies and key experts in the world to address this urgent problem."
The grant provides support for essential research to determine the optimum dosage forms for paediatric medicines; to develop dosing guides; and to determine guidelines for testing, treatment and use of medicines in children, including guidelines on conducting clinical trials in children.