{"entity":{"id":"idea-acc-eml-listing-price-commitments","kind":"idea","name":"Tie WHO essential-medicines listing to a published tiered price and supply pledge","aka":[],"tldr":"When a cancer drug is added to the WHO essential medicines list, the maker should publicly commit to a low price and reliable supply for poorer countries, or the listing is withheld.","summary":"Listing on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines is a reputational asset for manufacturers but carries no obligation. Many listed cancer medicines (trastuzumab, imatinib, rituximab) remained unaffordable or unavailable in most low-income countries for years after listing. The proposal is that the Expert Committee request, as part of the application, a public tiered-price schedule and a minimum supply commitment for low- and lower-middle-income countries, and publish which applicants declined.","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"WHO Model Lists of Essential Medicines","url":"https://www.who.int/groups/expert-committee-on-selection-and-use-of-essential-medicines/essential-medicines-lists"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":["trastuzumab","imatinib"],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":["b-global-access","b-drug-pricing"],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"hypothesis":"Within three years of a linkage policy, the median public-sector price of newly listed cancer medicines in low-income countries will fall by at least half relative to the pre-policy trajectory, and stock-out reports will decline.","rationale":"Naming-and-shaming works when the audience cares: the same companies publish access-to-medicine indices and lobby for EML listing. Vaccines show that price transparency plus volume commitments reshapes markets.","test":"Pilot with the next EML review cycle: require voluntary disclosure, publish who complied, and track price and availability through the WHO/Health Action International medicine price surveys.","maturity":"speculative","actor":"policy","cost":"small","horizonYears":3},"route":"/ideas/idea-acc-eml-listing-price-commitments/","neighbours":{"drug":[{"id":"imatinib","kind":"drug","name":"Imatinib","route":"/drugs/imatinib/"},{"id":"trastuzumab","kind":"drug","name":"Trastuzumab","route":"/drugs/trastuzumab/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-global-access","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Most of the world has almost no cancer care","route":"/bottlenecks/b-global-access/"},{"id":"b-drug-pricing","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Prices and value","route":"/bottlenecks/b-drug-pricing/"}],"roadmap":[{"id":"global-access-roadmap","kind":"roadmap","name":"Global access and affordability roadmap: essential medicines and generics → biosimilars and frugal trials → reliance, pooling and homegrown innovation","route":"/roadmaps/global-access-roadmap/"}]}}