WHO’s revised drug strategy, as adopted in resolution WHA39.27 of the Thirty-ninth World Health Assembly in 1986, calls for the preparation of model prescribing information which is being developed to complement WHO’s Model List of Essential Drugs.¹ The objective is to provide up-to-date source material for adaptation by national authorities, particularly in developing countries, that wish to develop national drug formularies, drug compendia and similar material.²

¹The use of essential drugs Seventh report of the WHO Expert Committee Geneva, World Health Organization, 1997 (WHO Technical Report Series, No 867)

² For details of volumes already published, see inside back cover

The information is to be regarded as illustrative rather than normative. It is appreciated that it is not possible to develop an information sheet on a specific drug that is appropriate to circumstances prevailing in each of WHO’s Member States and that some countries have already formally adopted texts of their own that have a statutory connotation.

This volume has been reviewed by internationally accredited experts and by certain nongovernmental organizations in official relations with WHO, including the International League of Dermatological Societies, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations, the International Pharmaceutical Federation, the International Union of Pharmacology and the World Federation of Proprietary Medicine Manufacturers.