The Government has added 106 drugs including that of Cancer, HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C to the list of essential medicines. The move will ensure their availability across India at affordable prices. This also takes the total number of items in the list to 376.<br/><br/>In a revision of the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) by the Health Ministry's core committee, 106 medicines were added while 70 were deleted after a series of meetings and consultations across the country. A notification by the Health Ministry said that the NLEM, 2015 has been prepared adhering to the basic principles of efficacy, safety, cost-effectiveness and consideration of diseases as public health problems in India.<br/><br/>Essential medicines are those that satisfy the priority health care needs of the population. They are based on the country's disease burden, priority health concerns, and affordability concerns etc.<br/><br/>The committee recommended that the list, which comes into effect immediately, be revised every three years.