Less than a tenth of patients eligible to benefit from weight-loss injections like Wegovy can access them, warns the global health agency as it issues its inaugural recommendations on the drugs.
Given more than one billion individuals worldwide now living with obesity, it is urging increased and just access to GLP-1 medication.
According to projections, in excess of 2,000,000,000 are projected to be obese by 2030 without intervention.
"The latest guidance acknowledges that excess weight is a lifelong illness that can be addressed with holistic and lifelong support," remarked the agency's head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Significant expense, limited production capacity, and logistical bottlenecks are major obstacles to broad access to the jabs that can aid individuals in losing substantial body mass, explains the agency.
Weight-Loss Drug Shortage
Even under the current best projected case, the supply of such drugs might only reach approximately 100 million people – less than 10% of those who need them, per the health organization.
The recommendation encourages nations and manufacturers to expand access, by measures like voluntary licensing.
A patent on semaglutide – the main ingredient of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy – is scheduled to end in a number of nations in 2026.
How Obesity Drugs Work
These medications replicate a natural hormone to slow digestion, reduce hunger and enhance the sense of being full so people consume fewer calories.
Patients typically begin shedding pounds within a few weeks of commencing the once-weekly jabs.
Evidence points to patients may see weight return after a year of discontinuing the drug, when their normal appetite resume.
To be above a healthy weight increases your likelihood for developing health problems, such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and specific malignancies.
Excess weight impacts people in countries worldwide and was linked to over three and a half million deaths worldwide in 2024, per the health agency.
