Less than 10% of patients eligible to benefit from weight-loss injections including Wegovy are able to get them, warns the World Health Organization as it issues its first guidance on the drugs.
Given over a billion individuals worldwide now classified as obese, it is urging more widespread and fairer availability to this class of drugs.
According to forecasts, over two billion could be living with obesity by 2030 without intervention.
"Our latest guidance acknowledges that obesity is a chronic disease that can be addressed with holistic and lifelong care," said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Significant expense, insufficient output, and supply-chain constraints are key hurdles to universal access to the treatments that can aid individuals in losing significant body mass, says the agency.
Skinny Jab Shortage
Despite the present most optimistic scenario, the manufacturing of these medications might only reach approximately 100 million people – less than 10% of the global need, according to the health organization.
The advice encourages nations and manufacturers to widen access, via approaches like voluntary licensing.
The intellectual property rights on semaglutide – the primary ingredient of the drug Wegovy – is set to lapse in multiple countries in 2026.
How Weight-Loss Drugs Function
GLP-1 drugs replicate a body's own hormone to slow digestion, curb appetite and increase the sense of being full so users eat less.
People commonly begin shedding pounds after several weeks of commencing the once-weekly jabs.
Studies suggests people may see weight return within a year of discontinuing the medication, when their normal food cravings return.
Being above a healthy weight increases your chance for contracting medical conditions, like diabetes, cardiovascular issues, stroke, and certain cancers.
Obesity concerns people in countries worldwide and was linked to over three and a half million fatalities worldwide in 2024, according to the health agency.
