Fewer than a tenth of individuals eligible to benefit from weight-loss injections including Wegovy can access them, warns the World Health Organization as it publishes its first recommendations on the drugs.
With more than one billion people worldwide now living with obesity, it is urging increased and just availability to these injectable treatments.
Per estimates, more than two billion could be obese by 2030 without intervention.
"The latest guidelines affirms that excess weight is a chronic disease that can be treated with comprehensive and lifelong care," stated the agency's head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
High costs, limited production capacity, and supply-chain constraints are key obstacles to universal access to the treatments that can assist patients in reducing significant weight, explains the agency.
Skinny Jab Shortage
Even under the present most optimistic scenario, the production of these medications might only reach approximately 100 million people – under 10% of those who need them, per the WHO.
The advice calls on countries and companies to widen availability, via measures like licensing agreements.
Exclusive production rights on a key compound – the core ingredient of the drug Wegovy – is set to lapse in several nations in 2026.
The Way Obesity Jabs Work
The injections replicate a biological compound to slow digestion, reduce hunger and boost the sense of being full so users eat less.
People typically start to lose weight after several weeks of beginning the weekly injections.
Evidence indicates patients may put most of the weight back on a year later of halting the drug, when their normal food cravings come back.
To be overweight or obese elevates your chance for developing diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, brain attack, and specific malignancies.
Excess weight concerns people in every country and was linked to millions of deaths worldwide in 2024, as per the health agency.
