Fewer than 10% of patients that would benefit from obesity jabs like Wegovy have access to them, warns the global health agency as it issues its first guidance on the drugs.
With more than one billion people worldwide now obese, it is advocating for broader and more equitable access to this class of drugs.
Per projections, more than two billion are projected to be living with obesity by 2030 if no action is taken.
"Our latest guidelines recognises that excess weight is a long-term condition that can be addressed with holistic and lifelong care," said the agency's head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
High costs, insufficient output, and distribution challenges are major barriers to universal availability to the injections that can assist patients in reducing significant weight, explains the body.
Weight-Loss Drug Supply Crisis
Despite the present best projected outlook, the supply of GLP-1 therapies could only cover approximately 100 million people – less than 10% of the global need, per the WHO.
The recommendation encourages governments and firms to expand access, via strategies such as voluntary licensing.
Exclusive production rights on the active ingredient – the primary ingredient of the drug Wegovy – is set to lapse in several nations in 2026.
How Weight-Loss Jabs Work
The injections imitate a body's own hormone to delay gastric emptying, suppress the appetite and boost satiety so people eat less.
Patients usually start to lose weight after several weeks of beginning the weekly injections.
Evidence suggests users may see weight return after a year of discontinuing the drug, when their typical food cravings return.
To be above a healthy weight increases your likelihood for developing medical conditions, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and certain malignancies.
Excess weight concerns people in every country and was responsible for 3.7 million fatalities worldwide in 2024, per the WHO.
