WHO Releases Global Guideline to Improve Access to Controlled Medicines

The World Health Organization (WHO) has published its first comprehensive guideline on balanced national controlled medicines policies, aiming to ensure access to essential drugs while minimizing public health risks from misuse. Controlled medicines—including opioids, benzodiazepines, barbiturates, and amphetamines—are vital for pain management, surgery, palliative care, epilepsy, mental health, and substance use disorders. Yet millions worldwide, particularly in low-income countries, lack access, while insufficient regulation elsewhere has fueled opioid epidemics.

The WHO guideline recommends policies that guarantee affordable, uninterrupted access and prevent diversion or overuse. Key measures include needs-based national planning, fair pricing, ethical marketing restrictions, supply chain innovations, legal reforms, professional training, public education, and robust monitoring systems. The recommendations cover seven domains: policy, pricing, medicine selection, procurement, regulation, prescribing, and education.

Developed through multi-year global consultations, the guideline emphasizes equity, dignity, and the right to health, and is expected to inform policy reforms, especially in low- and middle-income countries, reducing needless suffering.

22-09-2025