Guidance in this section mainly applies to the initial development of the NF; those who wish to use the WMF for reviews and updates of their existing NF should consult Chapter 9.

The scope and depth of drug information included in the NF should be appropriate for its intended audience. The WMF can be extensively utilized for the presentation of basic and supplementary information (see Box 4.1) on each drug and therapeutic class. However, there are likely to be cases when new information has to be added. Before new information is inserted, a comprehensive review of available and appropriate drug and therapeutic information should be conducted (more details are given in Chapter 5).

The editorial team will need to draft new text, or suitably qualified professionals can be asked to produce these drafts. To achieve uniform standards of writing and reviewing, and to maintain quality of additional information it is useful to introduce standard requirements for style, content, structure and format; standard operating procedures are useful especially when several people are involved in the writing of the additional material for the NF. For example, the British National Formulary editorial group apply more than 30 written standard operating procedures to direct the different information construction, review and editorial tasks needed for the repeated review process. The use of such quality assurance tools can help to maintain high standards and will also serve as a guide during future revisions of the NF.

Box 4.1. Information to be presented for individual drugs in a formulary

√, present in the WMF
VEN, Vital, Essential, Necessary
WMF, WHO model formulary.