Bill Gates, PAHO Aim To Expand Global Access To Weight-Loss Drugs

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) are teaming up to tackle one of the biggest challenges in modern medicine making powerful new weight-loss drugs accessible to people in poorer countries. Both groups told Reuters they've started working on ways to bring treatments like Novo Nordisk's NVO Wegovy and Eli Lilly's LLY Mounjaro beyond the world's wealthiest nations.

In an interview, Bill Gates (Trades, Portfolio) said his foundation's focus is clear: We'll take any drug that works well in high-income countries and figure out how to make it super, super cheap so it can reach everyone in the world.

PAHO director Dr. Jarbas Barbosa said the organization has begun developing recommendations for how best to use these drugs and plans to talk with Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, and generic drugmakers in the coming weeks. We are starting the conversation, he said.

The effort highlights a growing concern that obesity treatments which have transformed healthcare markets in rich nations remain out of reach for much of the developing world, where obesity and diabetes are also on the rise.