Under one in 10 people eligible to benefit from weight-loss injections including Wegovy are able to get them, warns the global health agency as it publishes its initial guidance on the medications.
Considering more than one billion individuals worldwide currently obese, it is advocating for broader and more equitable access to GLP-1 medication.
Based on forecasts, in excess of 2,000,000,000 could be obese by 2030 without intervention.
"Our new guidance acknowledges that excess weight is a long-term condition that can be treated with holistic and ongoing treatment," said the agency's head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Significant expense, insufficient output, and supply-chain constraints are key hurdles to universal availability to the treatments that can assist patients in reducing considerable weight, explains the body.
GLP-1 Therapy Supply Crisis
Even under the current best projected scenario, the manufacturing of GLP-1 therapies might only reach around 100 million people – less than 10% of the global need, per the health organization.
The advice urges nations and manufacturers to widen access, by approaches like patent sharing.
A patent on semaglutide – the primary ingredient of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy – is scheduled to end in a number of countries in 2026.
The Way Weight-Loss Drugs Work
The injections imitate a body's own hormone to reduce digestion speed, suppress the appetite and increase feelings of fullness so people reduce food intake.
People commonly start to lose weight after several weeks of beginning the once-weekly jabs.
Evidence indicates patients may put most of the weight back on a year later of stopping the medication, because their normal appetite resume.
Being overweight or obese raises your chance for developing health problems, like diabetes, heart disease, brain attack, and specific cancers.
Obesity impacts individuals in every country and was associated with over three and a half million fatalities worldwide in 2024, according to the health agency.
