Under a tenth of patients eligible to benefit from weight-loss injections including Wegovy are able to get them, warns the World Health Organization as it issues its first guidance on the drugs.
Considering over a billion individuals worldwide currently living with obesity, it is calling for more widespread and fairer access to this class of drugs.
Based on estimates, more than two billion could be living with obesity by 2030 without intervention.
"Our new guidelines recognises that obesity is a chronic disease that can be managed with holistic and lifelong support," remarked WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Significant expense, insufficient output, and distribution challenges are major hurdles to broad access to the injections that can aid individuals in losing significant body mass, notes the agency.
GLP-1 Therapy Shortage
Despite the current best projected case, the supply of GLP-1 therapies might only reach around 100 million people – less than 10% of eligible patients, according to the health organization.
The advice encourages nations and manufacturers to widen availability, via approaches such as patent sharing.
Exclusive production rights on semaglutide – the main component of the drug Wegovy – is due to expire in multiple countries in 2026.
How Obesity Drugs Operate
These medications mimick a body's own hormone to slow digestion, curb appetite and boost the sense of being full so individuals consume fewer calories.
Individuals commonly begin shedding pounds in the initial weeks of starting on the regular doses.
Research indicates patients may regain a significant portion within a year of stopping the treatment, when their typical food cravings resume.
Being carrying excess weight elevates your likelihood for experiencing health problems, like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular issues, stroke, and some malignancies.
Excess weight concerns people in all nations and was linked to millions of fatalities worldwide in 2024, as per the WHO.
