Fewer than a tenth of patients who could benefit from weight-loss injections like Wegovy have access to them, states the global health agency as it publishes its first recommendations on the drugs.
Considering over a billion individuals worldwide now living with obesity, it is calling for broader and more equitable availability to GLP-1 medication.
Based on estimates, over two billion are projected to be living with obesity by 2030 if no action is taken.
"Our latest guidelines recognises that excess weight is a lifelong illness that can be treated with thorough and ongoing care," remarked its chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
High costs, limited production capacity, and logistical bottlenecks are significant hurdles to universal availability to the injections that can assist patients in reducing significant weight, explains the body.
Skinny Jab Supply Crisis
Even in the present most favorable case, the production of these medications would only suffice for about 100 million people – fewer than 10% of those who need them, as stated by the health organization.
The recommendation encourages governments and firms to widen availability, via measures such as voluntary licensing.
The intellectual property rights on semaglutide – the primary component of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy – is scheduled to end in a number of nations in 2026.
The Way Obesity Jabs Function
These medications imitate a natural hormone to reduce digestion speed, reduce hunger and increase satiety so people reduce food intake.
People usually start to lose weight within a few weeks of starting on the once-weekly jabs.
Studies points to people may see weight return within a year of halting the medication, when their usual appetite come back.
Being carrying excess weight elevates your chance for contracting diseases, like diabetes, heart disease, brain attack, and specific cancers.
Excess weight concerns individuals in all nations and was associated with 3.7 million fatalities worldwide in 2024, according to the WHO.
