One in ten people who need weight-loss drugs can access them, warns WHO

Currently fewer than one in ten people who need weight-loss drugs globally are able to access them, the World Health Organisation has warned.

High costs and limited production capacity are restricting access to the more than one billion people around the world who are now obese, WHO said as it launched its first guideline on the use of GLP-1 medication.

It has predicted that more than two billion people will become obese by 2030 unless action is taken.

The guidance notes that obesity needs to be treated as a ‘chronic, relapsing disease’ that can be treated with comprehensive and lifelong care.

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WHO has already added GLP-1 therapies to its Essential Medicines List for managing type 2 diabetes in high-risk groups in September.

But the guidance also pointed out that medication alone will not solve the obesity crisis, which will also require governments to create healthy environments, provide targeted screening and intervention to those at risk and ensure access to lifelong care.

It said while the drugs can be taken long term, they need to be prescribed alongside lifestyle intervention on diet and exercise to help people keep the weight off.

The recommendations also called on countries and pharmaceutical companies to expand access, through strategies such as voluntary licensing where permission is given for off-patent production.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: ‘Our new guidance recognises that obesity is a chronic disease that can be treated with comprehensive and lifelong care.

‘While medication alone won’t solve this global health crisis, GLP-1 therapies can help millions overcome obesity and reduce its associated harms.’

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A study published earlier this month found that regaining weight after stopping taking tirzepatide (Mounjaro) is also associated with a reversal in the cardiovascular health benefits.

And GPs report facing a major increase in workload as patients seek access to tirzepatide since the NHS began offering the obesity drug in primary care in June as part of a phased roll out.

Professor John Wilding, professor of medicine and honorary consultant physician, in the Department of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine, University of Liverpool, said the guideline should be ‘broadly welcomed’.

‘It reasserts the view that obesity is a chronic, relapsing disease that may require treatment, but also makes the important point that any strategy to curb the global obesity epidemic will require co-ordinated efforts in public health to look at food systems and the physical activity environment as well as improving access to treatment.’

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And he added, it recognises that GLP-1 therapies need to be seen as long-term treatment as is appropriate to manage the chronic, relapsing disease of obesity ‘and that it should be supported by appropriate behavioural lifestyle treatment’.

A version of this story first appeared in sister title Pulse.