Less than one in 10 people eligible to benefit from weight-loss injections like Wegovy can access them, caution the World Health Organization as it issues its first guidance on the medications.
With in excess of 1,000,000,000 people worldwide currently classified as obese, it is urging more widespread and fairer availability to GLP-1 medication.
Based on projections, over two billion will be living with obesity by 2030 unless action is taken.
"Our new guidelines acknowledges that excess weight is a lifelong illness that can be managed with holistic and continuous treatment," remarked its chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Significant expense, insufficient output, and distribution challenges are significant hurdles to widespread access to the jabs that can aid individuals in losing substantial weight, explains the agency.
Weight-Loss Drug Supply Crisis
Even under the current best projected outlook, the supply of these medications could only cover around 100 million people – under 10% of those who need them, according to the health organization.
The advice encourages nations and manufacturers to widen access, by measures like patent sharing.
A patent on semaglutide – the main component of the drug Wegovy – is set to lapse in several nations in 2026.
How Weight-Loss Jabs Work
GLP-1 drugs imitate a body's own hormone to reduce digestion speed, reduce hunger and enhance satiety so users eat less.
People commonly begin shedding pounds in the initial weeks of beginning the weekly injections.
Evidence indicates patients may see weight return within a year of stopping the medication, because their typical food cravings return.
To be overweight or obese increases your chance for contracting diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, brain attack, and certain malignancies.
Obesity concerns people in all nations and was linked to 3.7 million fatalities worldwide in 2024, per the WHO.
