1: WHO sponsors child medicine programme

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is sponsoring a global campaign to promote research into child medicine.

Over half of all drugs currently used to treat children around the world are not specifically tested on youngsters, contributing to the roughly six million child deaths in developing nations each year.

Youngsters have different metabolisms to adults as well as weaker immune systems, so the lack of testing on children frequently places clinicians in the awkward position of having to choose between withholding treatment or risking severe side-effects.

Seeking to address the problem, the WHO has drawn up the first international List of Essential Medicines for Children, comprising some 206 products that it says can safely be administered to children.

The organisation is also pursuing testing programmes with a view to developing tailored pediatric therapies for such conditions as HIV/Aids, malaria, tuberculosis and asthma - in addition to producing more generic child-safe drugs like painkillers.

Commenting on the scope of the problem, WHO secretary general Margaret Chan said: "The gap between the availability and the need for child-appropriate medicines touches wealthy as well as poor countries."

While she insisted that children must be one of the "top priorities" for scientists, the fact remains that ethical testing of drugs requires the informed consent of trial participants - something that cannot be obtained from juveniles and so poses a major obstacle to producing child-safe drugs.

Research on the effects of medicines on children has stepped up nonetheless in recent times, with 125 paediatric drugs being studied in the last decade compared to just 11 products between 1990 and 1997.