In 2007, the World Health Assembly passed a Resolution titled ‘Better Medicines for Children’. This resolution recognized the need for research and development into medicines for children, including better dosage forms, better evidence and better information about how to ensure that medicines for treating the common childhood diseases are given at the right dose for children of all ages. The World Health Organization has therefore developed a program of work on medicines for children, including the development of a Model List of Essential Medicines for children (EMLc). As an extra resource for health-care workers and national programmes that supply medicines for children, this new edition of the WHO Model Formulary has been prepared, based on the 2nd edition of the EMLc, to provide prescribers with the best information about how to use the medicines included on the List.

In developing the WHO Model Formulary for Children, the editors have based decisions on treatment regimens on the best available evidence from clinical studies in children, that have been assessed and evaluated by the WHO Expert Committee on Selection and Use of Essential Medicines. However, as has been found by all authorities in relation to medicines for children, in many cases the recommendations on dose and duration of treatment in children have to be extrapolated from studies in adults and adjusted based on our understanding of the effect of age and development on the absorption, distribution and metabolism and excretion of different medicines in children of different ages. One of the aims of this publication is therefore not only to describe what is known about treatments, but to highlight where more research is needed...