Fewer than one in 10 individuals who could benefit from weight-loss injections like Wegovy can access them, caution the global health agency as it publishes its initial guidance on the drugs.
Given over a billion individuals worldwide now classified as obese, it is calling for more widespread and fairer access to this class of drugs.
Per forecasts, more than two billion will be living with obesity by 2030 without intervention.
"Our latest guidance affirms that excess weight is a long-term condition that can be treated with comprehensive and lifelong treatment," stated WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Significant expense, insufficient output, and distribution challenges are major barriers to broad availability to the jabs that can help people shift significant body mass, explains the agency.
GLP-1 Therapy Shortage
Despite the present most optimistic scenario, the supply of GLP-1 therapies would only suffice for about 100 million people – under 10% of the global need, per the WHO.
The advice urges nations and manufacturers to expand access, by measures such as patent sharing.
The intellectual property rights on the active ingredient – the primary ingredient of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy – is set to lapse in several countries in 2026.
How Weight-Loss Injections Operate
The injections mimick a natural hormone to slow digestion, suppress the appetite and boost the sense of being full so individuals reduce food intake.
People usually begin shedding pounds in the initial weeks of commencing the weekly injections.
Research indicates people may see weight return a year later of stopping the drug, because their typical hunger resume.
To be overweight or obese raises your risk for experiencing health problems, such as diabetes, cardiovascular issues, stroke, and certain cancers.
Excess weight concerns people in countries worldwide and was associated with millions of deaths worldwide in 2024, per the WHO.
