LAUSR

The Swiss drug company Roche has applied to have its drug bevacizumab (marketed as Avastin) taken off the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines as an ophthalmic treatment. Every two years a WHO expert committee meets to decide what should be included on the list, which provides guidance to countries about the “prioritization of medicines from a clinical and public health perspective.” The list was set up in 1977, and anyone can make an application for a drug to be included. In 2013 the committee voted to include “off-label” use of bevacizumab for ophthalmic treatment despite pressure not to do so from Novartis, which makes ranibizumab (Lucentis), …