Fewer than 10% of patients who could benefit from weight-loss injections such as Wegovy can access them, warns the global health agency as it publishes its initial recommendations on the drugs.
Given more than one billion people worldwide currently obese, it is calling for more widespread and fairer availability to this class of drugs.
Per estimates, more than two billion will be obese by 2030 unless action is taken.
"Our new guidelines affirms that excess weight is a long-term condition that can be treated with thorough and ongoing care," stated the agency's head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Significant expense, insufficient output, and supply-chain constraints are major barriers to broad availability to the injections that can aid individuals in losing substantial weight, says the agency.
Weight-Loss Drug Supply Crisis
Even in the present most favorable case, the manufacturing of GLP-1 therapies could only cover about 100 million people – under 10% of the global need, according to the health organization.
The recommendation urges nations and manufacturers to widen availability, through measures like licensing agreements.
A patent on a key compound – the primary component of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy – is scheduled to end in several countries in 2026.
The Way Weight-Loss Drugs Function
The injections mimick a body's own hormone to delay gastric emptying, reduce hunger and boost the sense of being full so users consume fewer calories.
Patients typically begin shedding pounds within a few weeks of beginning the weekly injections.
Studies points to people may put most of the weight back on within a year of halting the treatment, as their normal food cravings return.
To be above a healthy weight elevates your likelihood for experiencing health problems, like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, brain attack, and specific cancers.
Excess weight concerns people in all nations and was responsible for 3.7 million fatalities worldwide in 2024, according to the health agency.
