To take or not to take, that’s the question some of my friends are grappling with as they debate whether they should jump on the weight-loss drug bandwagon that has everyone from Oprah to Elon Musk singing its praises.
They want to shed a few kilos, but the price tag, the side effects, and the big question of “will the weight even stay off once I stop?” have them hesitating.
I understand the struggle. It is a truth universally acknowledged that losing weight is hard, and keeping it off is even harder. Fad diets over the years have shown there’s no quick fix to a healthy lifestyle. So when semaglutide, the main ingredient behind Ozempic and Wegovy, proved to be effective in weight loss, it was no surprise that it became a hit in many places globally.
But steep prices and limited stock have made the drugs inaccessible to many. In the Philippines, a monthly course can cost as much as $150 in drugstores — more than half of the monthly minimum wage in the country’s capital.
Patent expiry of semaglutide in 2026 in places such as China and India, however, is expected to pave the way for the entry of generics in the market, significantly slashing prices for the drug by up to 80%, Devex contributor Catherine Davison reports.
I would say that’s a yay for access, especially considering the range of health benefits the drugs offer, from addressing obesity and diabetes to reducing the risk of kidney failure and cardiovascular disease. Chronic diseases account for 75% of all deaths globally, and nearly three-fourths of those deaths take place in low- and middle-income countries.
But experts caution that the drugs shouldn’t be seen as a silver bullet. Governments still need to ensure healthy diets among their citizens to prevent obesity, and not just treat it.
They’re also concerned generic manufacturers will prioritize the highly profitable private weight-loss market — with access remaining elusive for diabetes patients and those in lower-income countries. High demand for the drugs could also divert resources from the diabetes care market, especially as the companies making billions in producing the weight loss drugs are the same ones producing insulin medications for diabetes.
Read: Ozempic generics are coming. But will low-income countries benefit?
The Trump administration is slowly giving us a clearer picture of what its “America First” global health strategy actually looks like in practice.
This week, the U.S. State Department announced a $150 million grant to Zipline — the American robotics and autonomous drone delivery company — so it can expand operations in five African countries. But there’s a catch: Payments will only flow once participating African governments sign contracts committing to cover the cost of logistics services.
It’s a move that fits neatly with the Trump administration’s foreign aid goals: partnering with American companies while shifting more responsibility for health programs onto partner governments.
Former Trump administration officials and African experts alike have praised the approach. William “Bill” Steiger, who served as USAID chief of staff during Trump’s first term, says it’s time for other governments to do their fair share and fund their own health needs. Anthony Mveyange of the African Population and Health Research Center thanked Trump for prioritizing direct relationships with African governments over routing money through nongovernmental organizations. And Seye Abimbola, associate professor of health systems at the University of Sydney, tells my colleague Sara Jerving the strategy “is far more honest than anything the U.S. government has said about global health ever.”
Former USAID Administrator Mark Green is also seeing the positives. He says the recent partnership announcements with Zipline and Gilead — for the rollout of the HIV prevention drug lenacapavir — suggest the administration wants to boost jobs at home and abroad, scale innovations, and protect America’s health security.
But not everyone is convinced. U.S. requirements for data sharing in its proposed bilateral compacts are raising eyebrows across the African continent.
Journalist and author Emily Bass reported that countries “will be asked to sign a data sharing agreement that could provide the US with login credentials to a sweeping array of national systems for the next twenty five years.”
Abimbola says the public needs to know what is in these deals.
“I’m from Nigeria, we have lots of oil that we sign off for pittance, and it bothers me that it’s likely that we will sign off our data and rights to specimens, etc., for a pittance,” he says.
Read: State Dept grants $150M to Zipline to triple African drone operations
Plus: Will African nations lose their leverage in an ‘America First’ health plan?
More reading: Former top USAID official details wish list on health and funding fixes (Pro)
+ From Nov. 26 to Dec. 3, secure exclusive access to articles, events, and our funding database with a Devex Pro membership, now available at a 50% discount. Sign up today, and discover all the exclusive content available to Pro members here
In what is perhaps the biggest replenishment surprise of the year, the United States pledged $4.6 billion for the work of the Global Fund for the next three years. This was unexpected, given the absence of any specific allocation for The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in the White House budget request for 2026.
But Jeremy Lewin, undersecretary of state for foreign assistance, humanitarian affairs, and religious freedom at the U.S. State Department, said in a video message that the Global Fund is a “critical partner” in the new “America First” global health strategy, and praised it for requiring recipient countries to make coinvestments, which, again, is a key component of the strategy.
The pledge is lower than the $6 billion U.S. commitment in the fund’s last replenishment, but supporters aren’t complaining. They’re welcoming the announcement, while also urging the U.S. government to release nearly $2 billion already appropriated by Congress for the multilateral funder.
In a statement, Chris Collins, president and CEO at Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said: “$4.6 billion is a strong pledge for the Global Fund’s 8th replenishment as long as the U.S. also meets its commitment to the 7th replenishment.”
Read: Global Fund raised $11.34 billion with a surprising US pledge
+ Listen: For last week’s episode of our podcast series, Sara joined Devex’s Rumbi Chakamba and Ayenat Mersie to discuss Trump’s approach to global health, and other top stories from the week.
It’s nearly Black Friday, and here is one deal you can’t miss.
UNICEF and the Serum Institute of India signed a new agreement that signed a new agreement that will slash the price of the malaria vaccine R21 from $3.90 to $2.99 per dose. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance — which is financially backing the agreement — anticipates the new price will generate savings of up to $90 million, allowing room to purchase an additional 30 million doses to vaccinate nearly 7 million more children over the next five years.
This is a big deal given that in 2023, malaria caused the deaths of nearly 600,000 people in the African region, 76% of whom were children under the age of 5 years old. Now, more children can be protected from the disease.
The lower vaccine pricing is expected to take effect toward the end of 2026 or early 2027.
Read: UNICEF, Gavi deal slashes malaria vaccine price to $2.99 per dose
840 million
—That’s the number of women globally who have experienced physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, a figure that the World Health Organization says has “barely changed since 2000.” The agency calls it “one of the world’s most persistent and under-addressed human rights crises.”
In South Africa, however, women have refused to accept this reality. Last week, a day before the Group of 20 leaders’ summit, women dressed in black came out and flooded the streets of the African nation, demanding that the government put a stop to soaring rates of gender-based violence in the country.
Nearly 120 women report rape cases each day in the country, 15 women are killed every day, and between 2022 and 2024, femicide cases rose by nearly 34%, according to South African nonprofit Women for Change.
In response, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa declared gender-based violence a national disaster.
My colleague Elissa Miolene, who witnessed the large-scale protest on the ground, writes that the declaration shifts the responsibility of managing gender-based violence to the executive branch. However, it’s not clear if the declaration means additional funding will be released to tackle the issue.
Read: Protests push South Africa to name gender violence a national disaster
New Lancet studies are sounding the alarm on the rise of ultra-processed foods. [Devex]
Ethiopia has reported six deaths from the ongoing Marburg virus outbreak. [Reuters]
An individual in the U.S. has died from complications caused by a bird flu strain that has never before been reported in humans. [CNN]