World Health Organization Sounds Alert Over Acute Scarcity of Weight-Loss Injections

Fewer than 10% of people eligible to benefit from weight-loss injections such as Wegovy can access them, states the global health agency as it issues its initial recommendations on the medications.

With more than one billion people worldwide currently living with obesity, it is urging increased and just availability to these injectable treatments.

Based on forecasts, more than two billion could be living with obesity by 2030 if no action is taken.

"Our latest guidance recognises that excess weight is a long-term condition that can be addressed with holistic and lifelong treatment," stated WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

High costs, insufficient output, and logistical bottlenecks are major hurdles to universal availability to the jabs that can help people shift considerable body mass, notes the body.

Skinny Jab Scarcity

Even in the current most optimistic scenario, the supply of GLP-1 therapies would only suffice for about 100 million people – fewer than 10% of eligible patients, as stated by the health organization.

The recommendation encourages governments and firms to increase availability, through approaches such as patent sharing.

Exclusive production rights on the active ingredient – the core ingredient of a leading brand – is set to lapse in a number of nations in 2026.

How Weight-Loss Drugs Function

The injections replicate a body's own hormone to slow digestion, curb appetite and enhance the sense of being full so people consume fewer calories.

People usually see weight reduction within a few weeks of beginning the once-weekly jabs.

Evidence suggests users may see weight return a year later of discontinuing the drug, because their typical appetite resume.

To be carrying excess weight elevates your likelihood for contracting health problems, including diabetes, heart disease, brain attack, and certain cancers.

Obesity concerns individuals in all nations and was associated with millions of deaths worldwide in 2024, per the WHO.