WHO Raises Alert Over Acute Lack of Obesity Medications

Less than 10% of patients eligible to benefit from weight-loss injections like Wegovy are able to get them, caution the WHO as it issues its inaugural advice on the medications.

Given over a billion individuals worldwide currently classified as obese, it is calling for more widespread and fairer access to these injectable treatments.

Per forecasts, more than two billion could be obese by 2030 without intervention.

"The latest guidelines acknowledges that obesity is a long-term condition that can be managed with holistic and ongoing support," remarked WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Substantial prices, limited production capacity, and supply-chain constraints are key hurdles to universal access to the injections that can help people shift substantial weight, notes the agency.

Weight-Loss Drug Shortage

Even in the present best projected scenario, the production of these medications would only suffice for approximately 100 million people – less than 10% of the global need, per the WHO.

The advice calls on countries and companies to expand access, via strategies like voluntary licensing.

The intellectual property rights on a key compound – the main component of a leading brand – is due to expire in multiple nations in 2026.

How Weight-Loss Drugs Operate

GLP-1 drugs replicate a body's own hormone to slow digestion, suppress the appetite and increase the sense of being full so individuals eat less.

Patients usually begin shedding pounds within a few weeks of beginning the weekly injections.

Studies suggests users may put most of the weight back on a year later of halting the treatment, when their usual appetite return.

Being above a healthy weight elevates your chance for experiencing diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, brain attack, and certain malignancies.

Obesity concerns individuals in every country and was linked to 3.7 million fatalities worldwide in 2024, as per the WHO.