Under 10% of patients that would benefit from weight-loss injections such as Wegovy are able to get them, caution the global health agency as it publishes its initial recommendations on the medications.
Given over a billion individuals worldwide now obese, it is calling for increased and just access to this class of drugs.
According to projections, more than two billion will be obese by 2030 unless action is taken.
"Our latest guidance recognises that excess weight is a long-term condition that can be managed with thorough and ongoing treatment," remarked WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
High costs, limited production capacity, and logistical bottlenecks are major hurdles to widespread availability to the injections that can help people shift significant body mass, explains the body.
GLP-1 Therapy Shortage
Even in the present most favorable scenario, the manufacturing of such drugs would only suffice for approximately 100 million people – less than 10% of those who need them, per the health organization.
The advice urges countries and companies to widen access, by strategies like voluntary licensing.
A patent on the active ingredient – the primary component of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy – is set to lapse in multiple nations in 2026.
How Weight-Loss Jabs Operate
The injections mimick a biological compound to delay gastric emptying, curb appetite and boost satiety so individuals reduce food intake.
People commonly start to lose weight in the initial weeks of commencing the weekly injections.
Studies suggests patients may see weight return after a year of stopping the drug, when their normal appetite resume.
To be carrying excess weight increases your likelihood for contracting diseases, like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, brain attack, and some malignancies.
Excess weight impacts individuals in every country and was responsible for millions of fatalities worldwide in 2024, according to the WHO.
