WHO says shortage of weight-loss drugs puts treating obesity at risk

Weight-loss drugs such as Mounjaro offer huge potential to tackle soaring obesity globally but are currently only available to one in 10 of those who need them, the World Health Organization has said.

- Denis Campbell Health policy editor

Their proven effectiveness in helping people lose weight means the medications represent “a new chapter” in how health services can treat obesity and the killer diseases it causes, the WHO added.

Its statement urged countries to do what they could to ensure that people who would benefit from glucagonlike peptide-1 (GLP-1) therapies could access them. But while eligible adults generally should get them, pregnant women should not use them, the WHO said.

Limits on global production capacitymean thatnow only at most about 100 million people could receive the

drugs - only 10% of the 1 billion who could benefit. The number of people deemed obese - based onabody mass index of 30 or more - is due to double from 1 billion to 2 billion by 2030, and the costs worldwide to hit $3tn by the same date, it said.

Italso said pharmaceutical companies would have to lower their prices for Mounjaro, Ozempic and similar drugsand hugely expand production toavoid peoplein the world’s poorer countries being denied them.