Fewer than a tenth of patients that would benefit from weight-loss injections like Wegovy can access them, warns the World Health Organization as it issues its initial guidance on the drugs.
Given more than one billion people worldwide now obese, it is advocating for more widespread and fairer access to GLP-1 medication.
Per forecasts, more than two billion could be living with obesity by 2030 without intervention.
"The new guidelines acknowledges that obesity is a lifelong illness that can be treated with comprehensive and ongoing support," said the agency's head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Substantial prices, insufficient output, and supply-chain constraints are significant barriers to universal availability to the injections that can aid individuals in losing significant weight, says the organization.
Skinny Jab Shortage
Despite the present most favorable outlook, the production of these medications might only reach around 100 million people – fewer than 10% of the global need, per the health organization.
The recommendation encourages nations and manufacturers to increase access, via strategies like licensing agreements.
The intellectual property rights on the active ingredient – the core component of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy – is set to lapse in a number of nations in 2026.
The Way Weight-Loss Drugs Work
The injections replicate a biological compound to slow digestion, suppress the appetite and enhance satiety so people consume fewer calories.
Patients commonly start to lose weight after several weeks of commencing the once-weekly jabs.
Studies points to people may regain a significant portion within a year of stopping the medication, because their normal hunger come back.
Being overweight or obese elevates your chance for experiencing medical conditions, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, brain attack, and certain cancers.
Excess weight concerns individuals in all nations and was responsible for 3.7 million deaths worldwide in 2024, as per the WHO.
