Less than a tenth of patients eligible to benefit from obesity jabs such as Wegovy can access them, states the global health agency as it publishes its initial recommendations on the therapies.
Considering more than one billion individuals worldwide currently obese, it is advocating for more widespread and fairer access to these injectable treatments.
Per estimates, over two billion could be obese by 2030 unless action is taken.
"The latest guidelines acknowledges that excess weight is a chronic disease that can be treated with thorough and ongoing treatment," stated the agency's head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
High costs, constrained manufacturing, and supply-chain constraints are significant obstacles to broad access to the injections that can help people shift substantial body mass, notes the organization.
Skinny Jab Supply Crisis
Despite the current best projected scenario, the manufacturing of GLP-1 therapies might only reach about 100 million people – under 10% of eligible patients, per the WHO.
The advice urges nations and manufacturers to widen availability, through strategies like patent sharing.
A patent on a key compound – the main ingredient of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy – is scheduled to end in multiple nations in 2026.
How Obesity Drugs Operate
GLP-1 drugs imitate a biological compound to delay gastric emptying, curb appetite and boost the sense of being full so users reduce food intake.
People commonly start to lose weight in the initial weeks of starting on the once-weekly jabs.
Research indicates patients may put most of the weight back on after a year of stopping the treatment, because their normal food cravings return.
To be above a healthy weight raises your risk for developing diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, brain attack, and specific cancers.
Obesity affects individuals in all nations and was associated with 3.7 million deaths worldwide in 2024, as per the health agency.
