The chances of the Health Department offering GLP-1 drugs to public sector patients for obesity any time soon are remote, reports Business Day.
While the WHO backed the treatments for long-term obesity almost a year ago, the department has yet to begin assessing whether to make them available, a senior official has confirmed.
The national essential medicines committee is considering adding the medicines to the list of drugs that can be prescribed for diabetes patients on state healthcare facilities, but it has not yet even started to review the evidence for their use in obesity care, said the department’s chief director for health promotion, Rebone Ntsie.
The WHO added GLP-1 drugs to its essential drugs list for managing diabetes in September 2025 and released guidelines for their use as a chronic treatment for obesity in December.
On the sidelines of the Global Obesity Forum in Madrid this week, Ntsie said consideration of the medicines for obesity is “on the radar”, but work has not yet started. The event is being held in parallel with the Global Obesity Summit hosted by the Spanish Health Ministry and the WHO.
South Africa has the highest prevalence of obesity in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the third highest in Africa: in 2016, 31% of adult males, 67% of adult females, and 13% of children under five were either overweight or obese.
While a growing number of GLP-1 medicines are now registered in South Africa, they are only available in the private sector. Medical scheme cover is limited, and their out-of-pocket cost renders them unaffordable for most patients.
Novo’s patent on semaglutide – the active ingredient in its weight loss treatment Wegovy and diabetes therapy Ozempic – expired in South Africa earlier this year, but only one cheaper generic alternative is available on the local market.
Sun Pharma launched a generic semaglutide, branded Semagard, in South Africa in August at a price that is about 18% below that of Ozempic, according to Bhekisisa.
Jeanette Hunter, the Health Department’s deputy DG for primary healthcare, said she expected that the price of GLP-1 medicines would drop when more generic products reached the market and rival pharmaceutical manufacturers competed for customers.
SAHPRA is already reviewing more than a dozen applications for generic semaglutide.
Hunter told delegates to the Global Obesity Forum that the department wanted to see healthcare professionals pay more attention to obesity care at the primary healthcare level.
“Clinicians will put people on diabetes treatment without addressing the fact that they are overweight or obese. It’s like the elephant in the room,” she said.
Business Day article – Why public-sector patients still cannot get obesity jabs (Restricted access)
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Why obesity should be treated as a chronic disease in South Africa
Weight-loss generics now in South Africa, but black market flourishes
Cheaper weight loss generics on the way for South Africa
Discounted Ozempic copy unlikely to be covered by medical aids