ABSTRACT
A number of international organisations are directly or indirectly concerned with the provision and use of medicines. We concentrate on some of the key organisations directly concerned in medicines policy, those in the field of regulation, promoting production and distribution systems. This chapter examines the organisation within the UN system which has an explicit mandate to deal with drug issues, i.e. the World Health Organisation. The UN system’s new approach to medicines policy has to be seen in the political context of the policy-making bodies of this system, the General Assemblies, where the developing countries hold a majority of the votes which they are increasingly using in order to articulate their specific needs. Among governmental international organisations the European Community is in a special situation, for it can legislate directly for its member states without the possibility for members to make major reservations once a text has been adopted by the governing body, the Council of Ministers.
