Less than a tenth of patients eligible to benefit from weight-loss injections including Wegovy can access them, warns the WHO as it publishes its inaugural advice on the therapies.
With more than one billion individuals worldwide currently living with obesity, it is advocating for increased and just access to this class of drugs.
Based on projections, over two billion are projected to be obese by 2030 without intervention.
"Our new guidelines recognises that excess weight is a lifelong illness that can be addressed with thorough and lifelong treatment," remarked its chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Significant expense, insufficient output, and distribution challenges are major obstacles to universal availability to the injections that can help people shift substantial body mass, says the organization.
GLP-1 Therapy Scarcity
Despite the present most favorable case, the production of such drugs could only cover approximately 100 million people – fewer than 10% of the global need, as stated by the health organization.
The recommendation urges governments and firms to widen access, by measures including voluntary licensing.
The intellectual property rights on semaglutide – the main ingredient of a leading brand – is set to lapse in a number of countries in 2026.
How Obesity Jabs Operate
GLP-1 drugs replicate a biological compound to reduce digestion speed, suppress the appetite and enhance the sense of being full so people eat less.
Individuals typically begin shedding pounds within a few weeks of beginning the once-weekly jabs.
Evidence suggests patients may put most of the weight back on a year later of discontinuing the drug, when their usual food cravings return.
To be above a healthy weight raises your chance for developing health problems, like diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and some cancers.
Excess weight concerns people in all nations and was linked to millions of fatalities worldwide in 2024, according to the health agency.
