Less than one in 10 patients eligible to benefit from weight-loss injections like Wegovy are able to get them, warns the global health agency as it releases its inaugural guidance on the medications.
Given over a billion individuals worldwide now obese, it is advocating for more widespread and fairer access to GLP-1 medication.
Based on projections, over two billion could be living with obesity by 2030 without intervention.
"The new guidelines recognises that excess weight is a long-term condition that can be managed with thorough and ongoing care," said the agency's head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Significant expense, limited production capacity, and logistical bottlenecks are key barriers to broad access to the treatments that can assist patients in reducing substantial weight, explains the body.
GLP-1 Therapy Scarcity
Even under the present most favorable case, the supply of such drugs could only cover around 100 million people – less than 10% of eligible patients, as stated by the WHO.
The advice urges nations and manufacturers to widen access, via strategies such as licensing agreements.
The intellectual property rights on semaglutide – the primary component of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy – is scheduled to end in a number of nations in 2026.
How Obesity Injections Function
The injections imitate a biological compound to reduce digestion speed, curb appetite and boost the sense of being full so users consume fewer calories.
People commonly begin shedding pounds in the initial weeks of starting on the weekly injections.
Evidence indicates patients may put most of the weight back on after a year of stopping the drug, because their typical appetite come back.
Being above a healthy weight raises your likelihood for contracting medical conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease, brain attack, and certain malignancies.
Excess weight affects individuals in every country and was responsible for 3.7 million fatalities worldwide in 2024, as per the WHO.
