A comparison of national essential medicines lists in the Americas.

Objectives: To compare national essential medicines lists (NEMLs) from countries in the Region of the Americas and to identify potential opportunities for improving those lists.

Methods: In June of 2017, NEMLs from 31 countries in the Americas were abstracted from documents included in a World Health Organization (WHO) repository. The lists from the Americas were compared to each other and to NEMLs from outside of the Americas, as well as with the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines, 20 edition ("WHO Model List") and the list of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Regional Revolving Fund for Strategic Public Health Supplies ("Strategic Fund").