Under 10% of patients who could benefit from weight-loss injections including Wegovy can access them, warns the global health agency as it publishes its first guidance on the therapies.
Considering more than one billion individuals worldwide now obese, it is calling for broader and more equitable availability to this class of drugs.
Per forecasts, in excess of 2,000,000,000 will be living with obesity by 2030 if no action is taken.
"The new guidelines affirms that obesity is a long-term condition that can be addressed with thorough and continuous treatment," stated the agency's head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
High costs, insufficient output, and distribution challenges are significant hurdles to widespread availability to the injections that can assist patients in reducing considerable body mass, says the agency.
Skinny Jab Scarcity
Despite the present most favorable case, the supply of these medications might only reach about 100 million people – under 10% of eligible patients, as stated by the WHO.
The guideline urges countries and companies to expand availability, by measures like patent sharing.
The intellectual property rights on a key compound – the core component of the drug Wegovy – is set to lapse in multiple nations in 2026.
How Obesity Jabs Operate
GLP-1 drugs replicate a body's own hormone to delay gastric emptying, curb appetite and enhance the sense of being full so users consume fewer calories.
Individuals typically begin shedding pounds in the initial weeks of beginning the weekly injections.
Research suggests people may put most of the weight back on within a year of halting the treatment, as their normal food cravings resume.
Being above a healthy weight elevates your likelihood for developing diseases, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and some cancers.
Excess weight concerns individuals in every country and was responsible for millions of fatalities worldwide in 2024, according to the WHO.
