WHO Raises Alert Over Critical Scarcity of Weight-Loss Injections
Less than one in 10 people eligible to benefit from weight-loss injections such as Wegovy have access to them, caution the WHO as it publishes its inaugural recommendations on the medications.
Given in excess of 1,000,000,000 people worldwide now living with obesity, it is urging more widespread and fairer availability to these injectable treatments.
Based on estimates, more than two billion will be obese by 2030 without intervention.
"The latest guidelines recognises that obesity is a lifelong illness that can be addressed with holistic and ongoing treatment," remarked its chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Significant expense, limited production capacity, and supply-chain constraints are major barriers to widespread availability to the treatments that can assist patients in reducing substantial body mass, explains the organization.
Weight-Loss Drug Supply Crisis
Despite the current most favorable case, the production of such drugs could only cover approximately 100 million people – less than 10% of the global need, as stated by the health organization.
The guideline encourages countries and companies to expand availability, via measures including patent sharing.
The intellectual property rights on a key compound – the main component of a leading brand – is set to lapse in multiple countries in 2026.
How Obesity Drugs Function
GLP-1 drugs mimick a body's own hormone to delay gastric emptying, curb appetite and boost feelings of fullness so people reduce food intake.
People commonly start to lose weight within a few weeks of beginning the weekly injections.
Evidence points to patients may put most of the weight back on after a year of discontinuing the drug, because their typical appetite return.
To be overweight or obese increases your chance for developing diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular issues, brain attack, and certain malignancies.
Obesity affects people in countries worldwide and was associated with 3.7 million fatalities worldwide in 2024, according to the health agency.
