Less than a tenth of people who could benefit from weight-loss injections including Wegovy can access them, warns the WHO as it issues its inaugural recommendations on the therapies.
Given in excess of 1,000,000,000 people worldwide now classified as obese, it is advocating for increased and just availability to GLP-1 medication.
Per estimates, in excess of 2,000,000,000 will be obese by 2030 without intervention.
"The latest guidelines recognises that obesity is a chronic disease that can be treated with holistic and lifelong care," remarked WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Substantial prices, insufficient output, and supply-chain constraints are major obstacles to universal availability to the jabs that can help people shift considerable body mass, says the organization.
GLP-1 Therapy Scarcity
Despite the current best projected case, the manufacturing of such drugs might only reach approximately 100 million people – under 10% of eligible patients, as stated by the WHO.
The guideline urges countries and companies to expand availability, via strategies including patent sharing.
The intellectual property rights on semaglutide – the core ingredient of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy – is set to lapse in multiple nations in 2026.
How Obesity Jabs Function
These medications mimick a body's own hormone to reduce digestion speed, suppress the appetite and enhance satiety so users eat less.
People usually begin shedding pounds in the initial weeks of commencing the once-weekly jabs.
Evidence suggests patients may regain a significant portion after a year of halting the medication, as their typical food cravings resume.
To be above a healthy weight increases your risk for experiencing health problems, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and certain cancers.
Obesity affects people in all nations and was linked to 3.7 million fatalities worldwide in 2024, according to the WHO.
