Under a tenth of people that would benefit from weight-loss injections such as Wegovy can access them, warns the World Health Organization as it issues its initial advice on the drugs.
Given more than one billion individuals worldwide currently living with obesity, it is calling for more widespread and fairer availability to GLP-1 medication.
Based on estimates, more than two billion are projected to be obese by 2030 if no action is taken.
"Our new guidelines affirms that excess weight is a chronic disease that can be treated with comprehensive and lifelong support," remarked WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Significant expense, insufficient output, and supply-chain constraints are significant hurdles to broad availability to the jabs that can help people shift significant weight, says the agency.
Skinny Jab Supply Crisis
Despite the present most optimistic scenario, the production of these medications could only cover about 100 million people – fewer than 10% of the global need, per the health organization.
The guideline calls on nations and manufacturers to expand availability, by strategies like licensing agreements.
Exclusive production rights on semaglutide – the core component of the drug Wegovy – is set to lapse in multiple countries in 2026.
How Weight-Loss Drugs Operate
These medications mimick a natural hormone to reduce digestion speed, suppress the appetite and increase satiety so individuals eat less.
Patients commonly start to lose weight in the initial weeks of starting on the once-weekly jabs.
Studies indicates patients may see weight return within a year of stopping the drug, because their usual hunger resume.
To be above a healthy weight elevates your risk for experiencing diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, brain attack, and specific cancers.
Excess weight concerns people in countries worldwide and was responsible for millions of deaths worldwide in 2024, according to the health agency.
