The Global Health Body Sounds Concern Over Critical Lack of Obesity Medications
Under 10% of patients eligible to benefit from GLP-1 drugs including Wegovy can access them, states the World Health Organization as it releases its inaugural recommendations on the medications.
With more than one billion people worldwide currently living with obesity, it is calling for more widespread and fairer access to this class of drugs.
Per projections, over two billion are projected to be living with obesity by 2030 unless action is taken.
"The new guidance acknowledges that obesity is a long-term condition that can be managed with thorough and lifelong support," remarked WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
High costs, insufficient output, and supply-chain constraints are major barriers to widespread availability to the jabs that can assist patients in reducing considerable weight, notes the agency.
Weight-Loss Drug Supply Crisis
Even in the present most optimistic outlook, the production of GLP-1 therapies might only reach around 100 million people – under 10% of the global need, per the health organization.
The advice urges governments and firms to increase availability, by strategies such as patent sharing.
The intellectual property rights on a key compound – the core component of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy – is set to lapse in multiple nations in 2026.
How Weight-Loss Jabs Operate
The injections mimick a body's own hormone to slow digestion, reduce hunger and enhance the sense of being full so individuals reduce food intake.
People commonly see weight reduction within a few weeks of starting on the weekly injections.
Evidence suggests patients may regain a significant portion a year later of stopping the medication, when their usual hunger return.
Being carrying excess weight increases your chance for contracting diseases, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular issues, brain attack, and specific cancers.
Excess weight impacts individuals in all nations and was responsible for over three and a half million fatalities worldwide in 2024, according to the health agency.
