The Global Health Body Raises Alert Over Severe Shortage of Weight-Loss Medications
Under 10% of people eligible to benefit from obesity jabs including Wegovy have access to them, caution the World Health Organization as it publishes its inaugural guidance on the medications.
Given in excess of 1,000,000,000 individuals worldwide currently obese, it is calling for broader and more equitable availability to these injectable treatments.
According to projections, more than two billion could be living with obesity by 2030 without intervention.
"The new guidelines acknowledges that excess weight is a chronic disease that can be treated with comprehensive and continuous treatment," stated the agency's head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Substantial prices, limited production capacity, and logistical bottlenecks are key barriers to universal availability to the jabs that can aid individuals in losing substantial body mass, explains the agency.
Weight-Loss Drug Shortage
Even under the present most optimistic case, the supply of GLP-1 therapies could only cover approximately 100 million people – less than 10% of eligible patients, according to the WHO.
The recommendation urges countries and companies to widen access, through measures like patent sharing.
A patent on a key compound – the main ingredient of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy – is set to lapse in a number of nations in 2026.
How Weight-Loss Jabs Operate
GLP-1 drugs replicate a biological compound to reduce digestion speed, suppress the appetite and boost the sense of being full so users eat less.
People typically start to lose weight after several weeks of starting on the regular doses.
Research suggests patients may put most of the weight back on within a year of discontinuing the treatment, because their typical hunger return.
Being above a healthy weight increases your likelihood for developing health problems, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular issues, stroke, and some malignancies.
Obesity affects individuals in countries worldwide and was responsible for millions of fatalities worldwide in 2024, as per the WHO.
