Under 10% of patients eligible to benefit from weight-loss injections like Wegovy have access to them, warns the global health agency as it releases its initial advice on the drugs.
Given in excess of 1,000,000,000 individuals worldwide now obese, it is advocating for more widespread and fairer access to this class of drugs.
Per projections, more than two billion could be living with obesity by 2030 without intervention.
"The latest guidance affirms that obesity is a long-term condition that can be addressed with holistic and lifelong support," remarked the agency's head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Significant expense, insufficient output, and logistical bottlenecks are major hurdles to widespread access to the injections that can help people shift substantial body mass, says the agency.
Weight-Loss Drug Shortage
Even under the current most favorable scenario, the supply of GLP-1 therapies would only suffice for around 100 million people – fewer than 10% of the global need, according to the health organization.
The recommendation encourages nations and manufacturers to expand availability, via strategies such as patent sharing.
The intellectual property rights on the active ingredient – the primary ingredient of a leading brand – is scheduled to end in a number of nations in 2026.
The Way Obesity Jabs Operate
These medications mimick a natural hormone to slow digestion, suppress the appetite and enhance feelings of fullness so people consume fewer calories.
Individuals commonly start to lose weight after several weeks of starting on the once-weekly jabs.
Research suggests people may put most of the weight back on within a year of stopping the drug, because their normal food cravings resume.
Being above a healthy weight increases your chance for developing diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, brain attack, and specific malignancies.
Excess weight concerns people in every country and was associated with millions of fatalities worldwide in 2024, per the health agency.
