The Gates Foundation and the Pan American Health Organization are collaborating to improve the accessibility of weight-loss medications such as Wegovy by Novo Nordisk and Mounjaro by Eli Lilly in lower-income countries. According to statements given to Reuters by global health entities, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and PAHO director Dr. Jarbas Barbosa revealed that their organizations are actively working on strategies to address the unequal distribution of these effective yet costly treatments.
Approximately 70% of the nearly one billion people worldwide suffering from obesity reside in low and middle-income nations, facing challenges in affording the expenses associated with combating the obesity epidemic and its related health issues like diabetes and heart disease.
When questioned about the medications, Gates expressed the Foundation’s commitment to making effective drugs affordable globally by leveraging their success in high-income countries. He highlighted ongoing efforts with Indian pharmaceutical company Hetero to introduce more affordable versions of a new HIV prevention drug priced at $40 annually in lower-income countries.
Starting next year, the patent for the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s popular drug Wegovy, semaglutide, will expire in various countries including China and India, paving the way for cheaper generic alternatives. The current brand-name weight-loss drugs are predominantly marketed in wealthier nations, where monthly prescriptions can cost hundreds of dollars.
Gates also mentioned the potential for the Gates Foundation to support clinical trials to evaluate the impact of these medications on diverse populations, facilitating broader access to these treatments. While the Foundation primarily focuses on combating severe diseases like malaria in low-income regions, addressing obesity would mark a new initiative.
Although obesity’s contribution to chronic diseases has intensified the need to address the escalating global obesity rates, Gates emphasized that it is not the primary concern in most countries where the Foundation operates. The World Health Organization projects that the economic burden of overweight and obesity could reach $3 trillion by 2030 without intervention.
In response to WHO’s draft guidelines recommending the use of weight-loss drugs for adult obesity treatment, PAHO, the WHO’s regional office for the Americas, manages a fund that negotiates lower medicine prices through bulk orders for its 35 member states. Barbosa highlighted that leveraging this fund, supported by member states, could streamline regulatory processes for weight-loss drugs and potentially lower costs, aiming to engage with Novo, Lilly, and generic drug manufacturers in the coming weeks to explore collaborations and recommendations for optimal drug utilization.