Less than 10% of individuals who could benefit from obesity jabs like Wegovy have access to them, states the WHO as it releases its inaugural guidance on the therapies.
Considering more than one billion people worldwide now living with obesity, it is urging more widespread and fairer availability to this class of drugs.
Per estimates, in excess of 2,000,000,000 are projected to be obese by 2030 if no action is taken.
"Our new guidance affirms that obesity is a chronic disease that can be addressed with holistic and lifelong support," remarked the agency's head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Significant expense, insufficient output, and logistical bottlenecks are major obstacles to broad availability to the treatments that can aid individuals in losing substantial weight, says the body.
Skinny Jab Scarcity
Even in the current most optimistic outlook, the manufacturing of such drugs might only reach around 100 million people – less than 10% of eligible patients, according to the health organization.
The advice encourages governments and firms to increase availability, through measures like patent sharing.
The intellectual property rights on semaglutide – the primary component of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy – is scheduled to end in a number of countries in 2026.
The Way Obesity Drugs Operate
These medications imitate a natural hormone to slow digestion, suppress the appetite and enhance the sense of being full so people eat less.
People commonly start to lose weight within a few weeks of commencing the weekly injections.
Evidence indicates users may put most of the weight back on within a year of halting the medication, when their normal hunger come back.
Being above a healthy weight elevates your chance for developing diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, brain attack, and some cancers.
Obesity impacts people in every country and was responsible for 3.7 million deaths worldwide in 2024, per the health agency.
