Bill Gates Reveals Plans for Weight-Loss Drugs
The Gates Foundation is exploring ways to make weight-loss drugs more accessible in lower-income countries.
Bill Gates told Reuters that his foundation would take any drug that was effective in high-income countries “and figure out how to make it super, super cheap so that it can get to everyone in the world.”
Why It Matters
Around 1 billion people suffer from obesity, of which 70 percent live in low- and middle-income countries.
Making weight-loss drugs more affordable could help reduce obesity rates and related health issues like diabetes and heart disease, as well as reduce the costs that come with treating them.
What To Know
The Gates Foundation, one of the world’s largest philanthropic organizations, was launched by the Microsoft founder and billionaire with a focus on improving global health and addressing other challenges.
The Gates Foundation is considering ways to make weight-loss drugs like Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro more accessible for people in lower-income countries, Reuters reported.
The brand-name drugs are expensive, with monthly prescriptions sometimes costing several hundred dollars.
The foundation is already working to make cheaper drugs available in lower-income countries, such as by working with Indian drug manufacturer Hetero to bring affordable versions of a new HIV prevention drug for $40 a year.
Starting next year, semaglutide, the active ingredient in Wegovy, will lose patent protection in countries including China and India, paving the way for cheaper generic versions to be made.
Wegovy and Mounjaro are part of a new class of weight-loss medications known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, originally developed to treat type 2 diabetes.
They work by mimicking a natural hormone that regulates blood sugar and appetite, helping users feel fuller for longer and reduce calorie intake.
Gates told Reuters that his foundation may also help fund clinical trials to study how these drugs affect diverse populations and generate data that could widen global access.
Another organization working towards making weight-loss drugs more accessible is the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the American branch of the World Health Organization (WHO).
The organization, which helps bring down the price of drugs by bulk-buying them for its member states, could do the same for weight-loss drugs, PAHO director Dr Jarbas Barbosa told Reuters.
What People Are Saying
Novo Nordisk told Reuters in a statement that it recognized the “unmet need” for its treatments, adding: “We are deeply committed to serving patients around the world.”
What Happens Next
Gates says his organization will work on ways to expand access to weight-loss drugs in lower-income countries.
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