WHO Sounds Alert Over Severe Shortage of Weight-Loss Injections
Fewer than one in 10 people who could benefit from weight-loss injections including Wegovy can access them, caution the WHO as it issues its initial guidance on the drugs.
Given over a billion people worldwide currently living with obesity, it is urging broader and more equitable availability to GLP-1 medication.
According to projections, in excess of 2,000,000,000 could be obese by 2030 without intervention.
"Our latest guidance affirms that excess weight is a chronic disease that can be addressed with comprehensive and lifelong support," remarked its chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Significant expense, limited production capacity, and supply-chain constraints are major hurdles to broad access to the treatments that can assist patients in reducing considerable body mass, explains the agency.
GLP-1 Therapy Shortage
Even under the current most optimistic outlook, the supply of GLP-1 therapies might only reach about 100 million people – under 10% of the global need, as stated by the WHO.
The advice urges nations and manufacturers to expand availability, by strategies including patent sharing.
A patent on a key compound – the primary component of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy – is due to expire in a number of nations in 2026.
How Obesity Injections Work
GLP-1 drugs replicate a biological compound to delay gastric emptying, suppress the appetite and boost satiety so people reduce food intake.
Patients usually start to lose weight in the initial weeks of beginning the weekly injections.
Research points to people may regain a significant portion a year later of halting the treatment, as their usual appetite resume.
Being above a healthy weight elevates your likelihood for contracting health problems, such as diabetes, cardiovascular issues, brain attack, and some cancers.
Excess weight affects people in every country and was responsible for millions of fatalities worldwide in 2024, per the WHO.