Less than 10% of patients that would benefit from weight-loss injections including Wegovy can access them, warns the global health agency as it publishes its initial guidance on the drugs.
Given over a billion individuals worldwide now living with obesity, it is calling for increased and just availability to these injectable treatments.
Per forecasts, in excess of 2,000,000,000 will be obese by 2030 unless action is taken.
"Our latest guidance acknowledges that obesity is a lifelong illness that can be managed with comprehensive and ongoing treatment," stated its chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Substantial prices, constrained manufacturing, and supply-chain constraints are key barriers to broad availability to the treatments that can help people shift substantial body mass, explains the body.
Weight-Loss Drug Shortage
Even in the current most favorable case, the supply of GLP-1 therapies would only suffice for around 100 million people – fewer than 10% of eligible patients, per the WHO.
The advice calls on governments and firms to expand access, through approaches like licensing agreements.
Exclusive production rights on a key compound – the core component of the drug Wegovy – is set to lapse in a number of nations in 2026.
How Weight-Loss Jabs Function
GLP-1 drugs mimick a body's own hormone to delay gastric emptying, suppress the appetite and boost the sense of being full so people reduce food intake.
Patients commonly see weight reduction in the initial weeks of beginning the once-weekly jabs.
Research suggests people may put most of the weight back on a year later of halting the drug, as their normal hunger return.
To be above a healthy weight increases your risk for contracting medical conditions, like diabetes, heart disease, brain attack, and certain malignancies.
Obesity affects individuals in countries worldwide and was responsible for over three and a half million fatalities worldwide in 2024, per the health agency.
