Less than a tenth of people who could benefit from weight-loss injections including Wegovy have access to them, states the WHO as it publishes its initial recommendations on the medications.
With in excess of 1,000,000,000 people worldwide currently obese, it is calling for increased and just access to these injectable treatments.
According to projections, over two billion could be obese by 2030 without intervention.
"The new guidelines affirms that obesity is a chronic disease that can be treated with holistic and lifelong treatment," remarked the agency's head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
High costs, constrained manufacturing, and logistical bottlenecks are major hurdles to broad access to the treatments that can aid individuals in losing significant weight, explains the agency.
GLP-1 Therapy Scarcity
Even in the current best projected scenario, the production of these medications would only suffice for approximately 100 million people – fewer than 10% of the global need, per the WHO.
The recommendation calls on nations and manufacturers to increase access, by strategies including licensing agreements.
The intellectual property rights on a key compound – the core component of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy – is set to lapse in several nations in 2026.
How Obesity Injections Function
The injections mimick a natural hormone to delay gastric emptying, reduce hunger and enhance satiety so users reduce food intake.
Patients typically start to lose weight in the initial weeks of starting on the weekly injections.
Studies indicates users may put most of the weight back on a year later of stopping the treatment, because their normal hunger return.
To be above a healthy weight elevates your likelihood for experiencing health problems, like diabetes, heart disease, brain attack, and certain malignancies.
Obesity impacts individuals in all nations and was linked to over three and a half million deaths worldwide in 2024, per the WHO.
