Breakthrough Weight-Loss Jab Could be Made for $3 a Month
More than a billion people live with obesity worldwide, with rates rising fast in lower-income nations as they shift to westernised diets and more sedentary lifestyles.
The World Health Organization designated semaglutide – sold to treat obesity under the brand name Wegovy, and diabetes under the brand name Ozempic – as an essential medicine in September last year. But global health leaders warned at the time that high prices were limiting access.
New research, published as a pre-print, suggests that semaglutide could be mass produced for $3 (about £2.35) for a monthly dose in its injectable form. Newer formulations, taken as a pill rather than an injection, could be made for about $16 a month.
One of the authors, Dr Andrew Hill of Liverpool University’s pharmacology department, said: “These low prices open the door to worldwide access to an essential medicine.” The researchers also found that core patents on semaglutide were due to expire in 10 countries this year, including Brazil, China, India, South Africa, Turkey, Mexico and Canada from 21 March, opening the way to generic competition.
They identified another 150 countries where patents had not been filed, including most of Africa. Those 160 countries are home to 69% of people with type 2 diabetes and 84% of those living with obesity.
Another author, Prof François Venter from Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, said: “Drugs to treat HIV, TB, malaria and hepatitis are available in low- and middle-income countries for prices close to the cost of production, saving millions of lives while allowing generic companies to make sufficient profit to ensure sustainable supply. We can repeat this medical success story for semaglutide.”
The researchers warned that cheaper treatments would not address the structural drivers of obesity, “including food insecurity, poverty, urbanisation and commercial food environments”, and said that coordinated policies and procurement planning would be needed to realise the benefits.