Less than a tenth of people that would benefit from obesity jabs such as Wegovy can access them, warns the World Health Organization as it publishes its first advice on the therapies.
Given over a billion individuals worldwide currently obese, it is advocating for increased and just availability to these injectable treatments.
According to estimates, over two billion are projected to be living with obesity by 2030 unless action is taken.
"The new guidance recognises that excess weight is a chronic disease that can be addressed with comprehensive and lifelong support," said its chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Significant expense, constrained manufacturing, and logistical bottlenecks are significant obstacles to universal availability to the injections that can aid individuals in losing significant weight, notes the body.
Weight-Loss Drug Shortage
Even in the current most optimistic case, the production of these medications could only cover around 100 million people – fewer than 10% of eligible patients, according to the health organization.
The advice urges nations and manufacturers to increase access, through measures including patent sharing.
Exclusive production rights on semaglutide – the main ingredient of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy – is scheduled to end in a number of nations in 2026.
How Obesity Drugs Function
These medications imitate a body's own hormone to delay gastric emptying, suppress the appetite and increase the sense of being full so users reduce food intake.
Individuals commonly begin shedding pounds within a few weeks of starting on the once-weekly jabs.
Research points to users may put most of the weight back on within a year of halting the treatment, as their usual hunger come back.
Being above a healthy weight elevates your chance for developing health problems, like diabetes, heart disease, brain attack, and some malignancies.
Obesity affects people in all nations and was linked to over three and a half million deaths worldwide in 2024, according to the health agency.
