Less than a tenth of patients eligible to benefit from weight-loss injections like Wegovy are able to get them, caution the World Health Organization as it releases its initial recommendations on the medications.
Considering over a billion individuals worldwide currently living with obesity, it is urging increased and just availability to GLP-1 medication.
Based on estimates, in excess of 2,000,000,000 are projected to be living with obesity by 2030 if no action is taken.
"Our latest guidance recognises that obesity is a long-term condition that can be managed with holistic and continuous care," stated WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
High costs, limited production capacity, and logistical bottlenecks are key hurdles to universal availability to the injections that can help people shift significant body mass, notes the agency.
Weight-Loss Drug Shortage
Even in the present best projected case, the manufacturing of GLP-1 therapies could only cover around 100 million people – less than 10% of the global need, per the health organization.
The guideline urges countries and companies to expand access, through strategies including patent sharing.
A patent on semaglutide – the main component of the drug Wegovy – is set to lapse in a number of countries in 2026.
The Way Obesity Jabs Work
These medications imitate a natural hormone to delay gastric emptying, suppress the appetite and enhance the sense of being full so people reduce food intake.
People typically start to lose weight in the initial weeks of starting on the once-weekly jabs.
Research indicates people may see weight return after a year of halting the treatment, as their normal hunger resume.
Being overweight or obese elevates your risk for developing medical conditions, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, brain attack, and some malignancies.
Obesity affects individuals in every country and was responsible for 3.7 million fatalities worldwide in 2024, according to the health agency.
