Fewer than 10% of individuals that would benefit from obesity jabs including Wegovy are able to get them, warns the global health agency as it issues its inaugural advice on the medications.
Given more than one billion people worldwide currently classified as obese, it is calling for broader and more equitable access to this class of drugs.
Based on estimates, over two billion will be obese by 2030 without intervention.
"The latest guidelines affirms that obesity is a long-term condition that can be treated with holistic and continuous treatment," remarked the agency's head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Substantial prices, insufficient output, and distribution challenges are key hurdles to widespread availability to the injections that can assist patients in reducing significant body mass, explains the organization.
Weight-Loss Drug Supply Crisis
Despite the current most favorable scenario, the production of GLP-1 therapies might only reach around 100 million people – less than 10% of the global need, per the WHO.
The advice calls on governments and firms to increase access, through strategies such as voluntary licensing.
Exclusive production rights on the active ingredient – the primary component of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy – is scheduled to end in several nations in 2026.
How Weight-Loss Injections Function
These medications imitate a biological compound to reduce digestion speed, reduce hunger and increase satiety so individuals reduce food intake.
People usually see weight reduction in the initial weeks of commencing the regular doses.
Evidence points to users may regain a significant portion within a year of halting the treatment, when their normal hunger return.
To be overweight or obese elevates your likelihood for contracting health problems, like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, brain attack, and some malignancies.
Obesity concerns individuals in countries worldwide and was associated with 3.7 million deaths worldwide in 2024, as per the health agency.