World Health Org backs obesity jabs for obesity treatment – but with conditions

There’s been a significant shift globally for weight loss medications like Ozempic and Mounjaro overnight. This is what it means for Australia.

The World Health Organisation has backed GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro for obesity treatment overnight, but warned their recommendations were “conditional”.

The peak global body issued new guidelines for GLP-1 drugs, recommending their use – in combination with intensive behavioural therapy – to treat obesity and calling for equitable access.

In Australia, GLP-1 drugs — while approved in some forms to treat obesity — remain inaccessible to many, as they are not covered by the pharmaceutical benefits scheme and cost patients hundreds of dollars.

But the WHO, while praising the medications as a “tipping point” in the treatment of obesity, also cautioned that “medication alone cannot solve the global obesity burden”.

They called on countries to invest in other public health initiatives to tackle obesity and noted there was still several questions marks over the popular drugs, including on their long-term use.

The WHO has backed drugs like Ozempic to treat obesity.

The WHO’s new recommendations were outlined in a special communication set to be published by JAMA early Tuesday morning.

It described intensive behavioural therapy — a key part of their recommendation — as a program that includes “structured goal setting for physical exercise and diet, energy intake restriction, weekly counselling sessions, and routine assessments of progress”.

But the two recommendations — that GLP-1 drugs may be used as a long-term obesity treatment, and in combination with intensive behavioural therapy — were conditional because of issues including “limited long-term data, cost, system readiness” and “equity”.

“The desirable consequences do not clearly outweigh the undesirable ones from patient, clinical and public health perspectives.”

The paper said future research priorities for GLP-1 drugs include their long-term effects on kidney disease, cognition, addiction, and quality of life, assessing cost-effectiveness and identify predictors of how an individual will respond.

Obesity is a huge issue in Australia.

The new recommendations come just hours after the Therapeutic Goods Adminsitration announced warnings for potential suicidal thoughts and pregnancy risks while on GLP-1 drugs.

The TGA, in a warning issued on Monday, said patients on popular weight-loss and diabetes jabs should be monitored for suicidal behaviour, while Mounjaro may stop the birth control pill from working.

Other side effects include constipation, nausea, vomiting, headaches and diarrhoea.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration was contacted for comment.