Less than one in 10 individuals eligible to benefit from weight-loss injections like Wegovy have access to them, warns the World Health Organization as it issues its initial advice on the medications.
Considering over a billion people worldwide now living with obesity, it is advocating for more widespread and fairer availability to this class of drugs.
Per forecasts, more than two billion are projected to be living with obesity by 2030 if no action is taken.
"Our latest guidance affirms that excess weight is a lifelong illness that can be treated with thorough and ongoing support," remarked WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
High costs, constrained manufacturing, and logistical bottlenecks are major hurdles to universal access to the treatments that can assist patients in reducing considerable weight, says the body.
Weight-Loss Drug Scarcity
Despite the current most favorable scenario, the supply of such drugs might only reach about 100 million people – fewer than 10% of eligible patients, as stated by the health organization.
The guideline encourages countries and companies to widen access, by measures like licensing agreements.
Exclusive production rights on semaglutide – the main ingredient of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy – is set to lapse in a number of nations in 2026.
How Obesity Drugs Function
GLP-1 drugs mimick a natural hormone to reduce digestion speed, suppress the appetite and enhance satiety so individuals reduce food intake.
Patients usually start to lose weight in the initial weeks of commencing the once-weekly jabs.
Research indicates people may see weight return after a year of halting the medication, as their normal appetite come back.
To be above a healthy weight increases your likelihood for developing diseases, like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, brain attack, and certain malignancies.
Obesity affects people in every country and was responsible for over three and a half million deaths worldwide in 2024, as per the WHO.
