The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a strong recommendation against prescribing powerful obesity medications to children under the age of 10, citing a lack of clarity regarding the long-term effects of these drugs on young patients.
For younger patients, the UN health agency emphasised that treatment should remain focused strictly on healthy eating and exercise. For adolescents between 10 and 19 years old, pharmaceutical intervention is recommended only if supervised lifestyle-change programs have proven unsuccessful.
The bariatric surgery may be considered for adolescents with severe obesity, but only “under strict conditions,” the WHO said.
“There is not enough evidence” to support the use of these drugs in young children, Bloomberg quoted Luz De Regil, director of the WHO Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, as saying. “Maybe as the evidence builds and grows, we are able to say something different.”
If global health authorities adopt the WHO guidance, it could significantly limit the pediatric market for the current generation of blockbuster weight-loss medicines, Bloomberg noted.
Market leaders Novo Nordisk A/S and Eli Lilly & Co. have been increasingly testing their drugs on younger demographics to address a growing health crisis. According to the WHO, approximately 170 million children and teens were classified as obese as of 2024.
Conditioning children “from the very beginning” to rely on medication rather than shifting their dietary and exercise habits could result in substantially higher healthcare costs over their lifetimes, Bloomberg quoted Laurence Grummer-Strawn, unit head of nutrition and food safety at the WHO, as saying.
Grummer-Strawn highlighted several critical unknowns, including how long the medicines remain effective, their long-term side effects, and whether children would need to stay on the drugs indefinitely to maintain their weight loss.
“If you’re starting children very early onto using a GLP-1 or drugs like this, when does that stop?” he questioned. “We don’t really have evidence that you can use this as a temporary treatment.”
In December, the WHO previously issued a recommendation supporting GLP-1 treatments for adults with obesity. The agency is currently reviewing guidelines regarding weight gain during pregnancy.
(With Bloomberg inputs)
