Under a tenth of people eligible to benefit from weight-loss injections such as Wegovy can access them, warns the WHO as it releases its first advice on the therapies.
Considering in excess of 1,000,000,000 individuals worldwide now classified as obese, it is urging more widespread and fairer availability to these injectable treatments.
Per projections, more than two billion are projected to be living with obesity by 2030 without intervention.
"The new guidelines affirms that excess weight is a chronic disease that can be addressed with holistic and ongoing treatment," remarked its chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
High costs, constrained manufacturing, and supply-chain constraints are key obstacles to universal availability to the treatments that can help people shift substantial weight, explains the organization.
GLP-1 Therapy Shortage
Despite the present most optimistic scenario, the production of such drugs would only suffice for approximately 100 million people – less than 10% of eligible patients, according to the health organization.
The advice calls on governments and firms to expand availability, via measures such as licensing agreements.
A patent on the active ingredient – the primary component of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy – is set to lapse in a number of countries in 2026.
How Obesity Injections Operate
GLP-1 drugs mimick a body's own hormone to delay gastric emptying, reduce hunger and increase satiety so people consume fewer calories.
People usually see weight reduction in the initial weeks of beginning the weekly injections.
Studies points to users may put most of the weight back on a year later of stopping the medication, as their normal food cravings resume.
Being above a healthy weight elevates your chance for developing diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and specific malignancies.
Obesity concerns people in countries worldwide and was responsible for over three and a half million deaths worldwide in 2024, according to the health agency.
