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07 June 2024

Op-ed: Obesity drugs pose a big challenge for health care equity

For STAT, the Access to Medicine Foundation’s CEO, Jayasree K. Iyer writes about potential disparities in access to weight loss drugs in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

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Obesity rates in LMICs are increasing faster than in wealthier nations for various reasons, including a lack of access to nutritious foods and increasingly sedentary lifestyles.  

In her op-ed, Iyer establishes that the obesity crisis being faced by many LMICs does not mean hunger and undernourishment have been solved. Rather, some LMICs are now facing double epidemics of hunger and obesity, which both pose serious long-term consequences for health. 

Demand for new GLP-1 drugs for obesity such as Wegovy and Zepbound has grown quickly in high-income countries, due to their important health benefits. However, Jay worries that pharmaceutical companies are not adequately planning for distribution of new weight loss treatments in LMICs. 

Iyer writes that while companies must consider their bottom lines, they must also facilitate better and earlier access planning to ensure that people in resource-poor countries are not neglected. 

On another note, she adds that high demand and potential profits from obesity drugs could distract R&D-based pharma companies from developing other critical products, such as antibiotics, which are needed in the fight against antimicrobial resistance. 

In the media

Read other op-eds by the Foundation's CEO
Media

Op-ed: How investors can bolster global health equity while generating long-term value

12 February 2024
Media

Op-ed: Climate change is unleashing a tsunami of infectious diseases–and we have fewer and fewer drugs that can treat them

11 December 2023

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