Less than a tenth of patients who could benefit from GLP-1 drugs including Wegovy can access them, warns the global health agency as it publishes its inaugural guidance on the therapies.
Given in excess of 1,000,000,000 people worldwide now classified as obese, it is advocating for more widespread and fairer access to these injectable treatments.
Based on projections, over two billion could be obese by 2030 unless action is taken.
"Our new guidance recognises that excess weight is a long-term condition that can be managed with thorough and continuous care," said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
High costs, insufficient output, and supply-chain constraints are major hurdles to universal availability to the injections that can aid individuals in losing substantial body mass, says the agency.
Skinny Jab Scarcity
Even in the current most favorable scenario, the supply of these medications would only suffice for about 100 million people – under 10% of the global need, as stated by the health organization.
The recommendation calls on nations and manufacturers to widen access, via approaches like licensing agreements.
The intellectual property rights on a key compound – the core component of the drug Wegovy – is set to lapse in multiple countries in 2026.
How Weight-Loss Jabs Function
GLP-1 drugs mimick a biological compound to delay gastric emptying, curb appetite and enhance the sense of being full so people eat less.
Individuals usually begin shedding pounds in the initial weeks of commencing the once-weekly jabs.
Studies indicates users may put most of the weight back on a year later of stopping the drug, because their typical hunger resume.
To be above a healthy weight increases your chance for developing diseases, like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular issues, stroke, and some cancers.
Excess weight concerns people in all nations and was associated with 3.7 million deaths worldwide in 2024, per the health agency.
