The Global Health Body Sounds Warning Over Critical Lack of Weight-Loss Injections
Under one in 10 individuals eligible to benefit from weight-loss injections such as Wegovy can access them, caution the WHO as it publishes its inaugural recommendations on the drugs.
With over a billion individuals worldwide currently obese, it is calling for broader and more equitable availability to these injectable treatments.
Per estimates, over two billion could be living with obesity by 2030 if no action is taken.
"The new guidelines recognises that obesity is a chronic disease that can be managed with holistic and continuous care," said the agency's head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Substantial prices, insufficient output, and distribution challenges are significant hurdles to broad availability to the injections that can help people shift significant weight, explains the agency.
Skinny Jab Scarcity
Even in the current most favorable case, the manufacturing of GLP-1 therapies could only cover approximately 100 million people – under 10% of those who need them, according to the WHO.
The guideline calls on countries and companies to widen access, through measures such as patent sharing.
Exclusive production rights on the active ingredient – the main ingredient of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy – is due to expire in several nations in 2026.
How Obesity Injections Function
The injections mimick a natural hormone to delay gastric emptying, curb appetite and enhance satiety so people consume fewer calories.
Patients commonly begin shedding pounds within a few weeks of beginning the weekly injections.
Evidence suggests users may regain a significant portion a year later of halting the treatment, as their usual appetite resume.
To be above a healthy weight increases your likelihood for developing diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular issues, stroke, and specific malignancies.
Obesity affects individuals in every country and was responsible for over three and a half million fatalities worldwide in 2024, as per the health agency.