Fewer than one in 10 people who could benefit from weight-loss injections such as Wegovy can access them, caution the WHO as it releases its inaugural recommendations on the medications.
Given in excess of 1,000,000,000 people worldwide currently living with obesity, it is calling for increased and just availability to GLP-1 medication.
Per forecasts, more than two billion could be living with obesity by 2030 without intervention.
"The new guidance affirms that excess weight is a long-term condition that can be addressed with thorough and ongoing treatment," remarked WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Significant expense, limited production capacity, and distribution challenges are significant barriers to widespread availability to the jabs that can help people shift substantial body mass, says the organization.
Weight-Loss Drug Scarcity
Despite the present most optimistic case, the production of such drugs would only suffice for approximately 100 million people – less than 10% of eligible patients, per the WHO.
The advice encourages governments and firms to expand availability, through approaches like patent sharing.
Exclusive production rights on the active ingredient – the core ingredient of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy – is due to expire in a number of nations in 2026.
How Obesity Injections Work
GLP-1 drugs imitate a body's own hormone to slow digestion, suppress the appetite and enhance satiety so users reduce food intake.
People commonly start to lose weight in the initial weeks of starting on the regular doses.
Research suggests people may see weight return within a year of discontinuing the drug, because their typical hunger return.
To be overweight or obese elevates your chance for developing diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, brain attack, and some cancers.
Excess weight concerns people in countries worldwide and was responsible for millions of deaths worldwide in 2024, per the WHO.
