WHO Issues Warning Over Acute Lack of Weight-Loss Injections
Fewer than a tenth of patients who could benefit from weight-loss injections like Wegovy are able to get them, states the World Health Organization as it issues its inaugural recommendations on the drugs.
Given over a billion people worldwide currently obese, it is advocating for increased and just access to GLP-1 medication.
According to estimates, over two billion could be obese by 2030 without intervention.
"The new guidelines acknowledges that obesity is a chronic disease that can be treated with holistic and lifelong care," said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Substantial prices, insufficient output, and distribution challenges are key obstacles to universal availability to the injections that can help people shift substantial weight, notes the agency.
Weight-Loss Drug Scarcity
Despite the present most optimistic case, the production of such drugs would only suffice for about 100 million people – under 10% of eligible patients, per the health organization.
The recommendation calls on governments and firms to widen access, by measures like patent sharing.
The intellectual property rights on a key compound – the primary component of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy – is due to expire in a number of countries in 2026.
The Way Weight-Loss Injections Operate
GLP-1 drugs replicate a biological compound to delay gastric emptying, suppress the appetite and boost the sense of being full so individuals eat less.
Patients usually begin shedding pounds in the initial weeks of beginning the weekly injections.
Research suggests patients may put most of the weight back on after a year of stopping the drug, when their typical appetite return.
To be carrying excess weight elevates your likelihood for developing health problems, like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular issues, stroke, and certain malignancies.
Excess weight concerns individuals in every country and was associated with over three and a half million deaths worldwide in 2024, as per the health agency.
