Less than one in 10 patients eligible to benefit from weight-loss injections including Wegovy can access them, caution the WHO as it publishes its first advice on the drugs.
Considering in excess of 1,000,000,000 individuals worldwide currently living with obesity, it is advocating for increased and just availability to GLP-1 medication.
Based on estimates, in excess of 2,000,000,000 are projected to be obese by 2030 unless action is taken.
"The latest guidelines acknowledges that obesity is a long-term condition that can be treated with thorough and ongoing treatment," remarked the agency's head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Significant expense, constrained manufacturing, and distribution challenges are significant hurdles to universal access to the treatments that can assist patients in reducing considerable body mass, notes the agency.
Weight-Loss Drug Shortage
Even in the current most favorable outlook, the manufacturing of these medications could only cover around 100 million people – less than 10% of those who need them, according to the health organization.
The advice urges governments and firms to widen access, through measures such as licensing agreements.
A patent on semaglutide – the primary ingredient of the drug Wegovy – is set to lapse in multiple nations in 2026.
How Weight-Loss Injections Work
GLP-1 drugs replicate a body's own hormone to delay gastric emptying, suppress the appetite and enhance satiety so people reduce food intake.
Patients commonly start to lose weight in the initial weeks of starting on the once-weekly jabs.
Studies indicates users may see weight return after a year of halting the treatment, when their usual appetite resume.
To be above a healthy weight increases your risk for developing medical conditions, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular issues, stroke, and some malignancies.
Excess weight concerns people in every country and was responsible for millions of deaths worldwide in 2024, as per the WHO.
