Article originalLes 100 médicaments essentiels. Une approche de médecine interne100 essential drugs. An internal medicine approach

Purpose Up to 4600 drugs in about 15,000 pharmaceutical forms are available in France which may be a source of misuse with increased occurrence of side effects and costs. While the World Health Organization is encouraging each developed country to work out its own list of essential drugs. The list provided in 2008 by the French Office for the safety of health products has had so far limited impact on practice, so it became obvious to a group of internists to work out a “wise list” of 100 essential medicines covering 95% of the disorders observed in France.