Fewer than one in 10 individuals who could benefit from obesity jabs like Wegovy can access them, caution the World Health Organization as it issues its inaugural guidance on the drugs.
With in excess of 1,000,000,000 people worldwide now obese, it is urging broader and more equitable access to GLP-1 medication.
Per estimates, more than two billion are projected to be living with obesity by 2030 if no action is taken.
"Our new guidance recognises that excess weight is a long-term condition that can be treated with holistic and ongoing support," stated its chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
High costs, insufficient output, and supply-chain constraints are key obstacles to broad availability to the treatments that can aid individuals in losing substantial weight, says the body.
Weight-Loss Drug Supply Crisis
Even in the current most optimistic outlook, the production of these medications might only reach approximately 100 million people – fewer than 10% of those who need them, per the health organization.
The advice urges nations and manufacturers to increase access, via approaches such as licensing agreements.
Exclusive production rights on a key compound – the core ingredient of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy – is set to lapse in a number of countries in 2026.
How Weight-Loss Drugs Function
GLP-1 drugs imitate a biological compound to reduce digestion speed, curb appetite and increase feelings of fullness so individuals eat less.
People commonly begin shedding pounds after several weeks of commencing the weekly injections.
Research points to patients may regain a significant portion after a year of stopping the drug, because their usual hunger come back.
To be overweight or obese raises your chance for developing health problems, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, brain attack, and specific malignancies.
Excess weight concerns people in every country and was associated with 3.7 million fatalities worldwide in 2024, per the WHO.
