Fewer than one in 10 people who could benefit from weight-loss injections including Wegovy have access to them, caution the World Health Organization as it releases its first recommendations on the therapies.
Considering over a billion individuals worldwide currently living with obesity, it is urging more widespread and fairer availability to these injectable treatments.
According to projections, more than two billion are projected to be living with obesity by 2030 without intervention.
"Our new guidance recognises that excess weight is a lifelong illness that can be addressed with holistic and lifelong care," remarked WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Significant expense, insufficient output, and distribution challenges are major hurdles to broad availability to the treatments that can aid individuals in losing significant weight, explains the agency.
Weight-Loss Drug Supply Crisis
Despite the present best projected scenario, the supply of these medications might only reach around 100 million people – fewer than 10% of eligible patients, according to the health organization.
The advice encourages governments and firms to increase access, via strategies like licensing agreements.
A patent on the active ingredient – the main component of a leading brand – is set to lapse in multiple nations in 2026.
How Obesity Jabs Function
These medications mimick a natural hormone to slow digestion, reduce hunger and boost the sense of being full so people reduce food intake.
People commonly start to lose weight in the initial weeks of starting on the weekly injections.
Evidence points to patients may put most of the weight back on after a year of halting the medication, because their usual food cravings resume.
To be overweight or obese increases your risk for experiencing medical conditions, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular issues, stroke, and certain malignancies.
Obesity impacts people in every country and was associated with 3.7 million fatalities worldwide in 2024, as per the health agency.
