WHO Raises Alert Over Critical Scarcity of Obesity Jabs
Less than 10% of individuals eligible to benefit from obesity jabs like Wegovy are able to get them, warns the World Health Organization as it issues its inaugural advice on the therapies.
Considering more than one billion individuals worldwide currently obese, it is urging broader and more equitable availability to GLP-1 medication.
Per estimates, more than two billion are projected to be living with obesity by 2030 unless action is taken.
"The new guidelines recognises that obesity is a chronic disease that can be treated with holistic and ongoing care," remarked its chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Significant expense, limited production capacity, and distribution challenges are major obstacles to broad availability to the injections that can assist patients in reducing significant weight, explains the organization.
Skinny Jab Scarcity
Despite the present most optimistic scenario, the manufacturing of GLP-1 therapies would only suffice for about 100 million people – fewer than 10% of those who need them, per the WHO.
The advice calls on nations and manufacturers to widen access, through strategies such as voluntary licensing.
Exclusive production rights on the active ingredient – the core component of the drug Wegovy – is set to lapse in a number of nations in 2026.
How Obesity Jabs Work
The injections mimick a body's own hormone to delay gastric emptying, suppress the appetite and increase satiety so people reduce food intake.
Patients usually see weight reduction in the initial weeks of beginning the once-weekly jabs.
Research indicates users may put most of the weight back on within a year of discontinuing the treatment, because their usual food cravings resume.
Being above a healthy weight raises your chance for developing health problems, such as diabetes, heart disease, brain attack, and certain cancers.
Obesity affects individuals in all nations and was linked to over three and a half million deaths worldwide in 2024, per the health agency.