Less than a tenth of individuals eligible to benefit from obesity jabs like Wegovy can access them, caution the global health agency as it issues its initial recommendations on the therapies.
Considering over a billion individuals worldwide currently living with obesity, it is advocating for more widespread and fairer access to GLP-1 medication.
Per estimates, over two billion will be living with obesity by 2030 unless action is taken.
"The new guidelines recognises that excess weight is a long-term condition that can be addressed with comprehensive and continuous treatment," stated WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Significant expense, insufficient output, and distribution challenges are key obstacles to widespread availability to the injections that can help people shift considerable weight, explains the organization.
GLP-1 Therapy Shortage
Despite the present most favorable scenario, the supply of these medications would only suffice for about 100 million people – fewer than 10% of the global need, per the health organization.
The advice calls on nations and manufacturers to increase availability, through approaches like licensing agreements.
A patent on the active ingredient – the core component of the drug Wegovy – is set to lapse in several countries in 2026.
How Weight-Loss Jabs Operate
These medications mimick a body's own hormone to slow digestion, suppress the appetite and increase feelings of fullness so users consume fewer calories.
Patients commonly start to lose weight in the initial weeks of beginning the regular doses.
Research points to patients may put most of the weight back on a year later of halting the drug, as their typical food cravings come back.
To be above a healthy weight increases your risk for experiencing diseases, like diabetes, cardiovascular issues, stroke, and some malignancies.
Obesity concerns people in every country and was responsible for over three and a half million deaths worldwide in 2024, as per the health agency.
