Under a tenth of patients that would benefit from weight-loss injections like Wegovy have access to them, warns the global health agency as it issues its initial guidance on the drugs.
Given more than one billion individuals worldwide currently living with obesity, it is advocating for increased and just access to GLP-1 medication.
Based on estimates, in excess of 2,000,000,000 are projected to be obese by 2030 without intervention.
"Our latest guidelines affirms that excess weight is a long-term condition that can be managed with thorough and continuous care," stated WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Substantial prices, insufficient output, and distribution challenges are major hurdles to universal availability to the injections that can help people shift significant body mass, explains the organization.
GLP-1 Therapy Shortage
Even under the present best projected scenario, the production of GLP-1 therapies would only suffice for approximately 100 million people – fewer than 10% of the global need, according to the WHO.
The advice calls on governments and firms to widen availability, by strategies such as voluntary licensing.
A patent on the active ingredient – the core component of a leading brand – is set to lapse in a number of nations in 2026.
The Way Obesity Jabs Work
These medications imitate a biological compound to delay gastric emptying, curb appetite and increase satiety so people consume fewer calories.
People typically see weight reduction in the initial weeks of starting on the once-weekly jabs.
Research points to people may put most of the weight back on within a year of discontinuing the drug, as their usual appetite resume.
Being overweight or obese elevates your likelihood for developing diseases, like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular issues, stroke, and certain malignancies.
Obesity concerns people in all nations and was linked to 3.7 million deaths worldwide in 2024, as per the WHO.
