Less than 10% of people who could benefit from GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy have access to them, states the global health agency as it publishes its inaugural advice on the drugs.
With over a billion individuals worldwide currently obese, it is calling for more widespread and fairer access to this class of drugs.
According to projections, more than two billion will be obese by 2030 without intervention.
"The latest guidelines acknowledges that obesity is a lifelong illness that can be managed with holistic and continuous support," stated WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
High costs, insufficient output, and distribution challenges are major hurdles to broad access to the treatments that can assist patients in reducing substantial weight, notes the agency.
GLP-1 Therapy Supply Crisis
Even in the current most optimistic case, the manufacturing of GLP-1 therapies might only reach about 100 million people – less than 10% of the global need, per the WHO.
The recommendation urges governments and firms to widen availability, via approaches such as patent sharing.
A patent on the active ingredient – the main ingredient of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy – is set to lapse in several countries in 2026.
The Way Obesity Injections Work
These medications imitate a natural hormone to delay gastric emptying, reduce hunger and enhance satiety so individuals eat less.
People commonly start to lose weight after several weeks of starting on the once-weekly jabs.
Evidence points to patients may put most of the weight back on a year later of halting the medication, because their typical food cravings resume.
To be above a healthy weight increases your chance for experiencing health problems, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, brain attack, and some malignancies.
Excess weight concerns people in countries worldwide and was associated with 3.7 million fatalities worldwide in 2024, according to the health agency.
