A panel of advisers to the WHO will review new requests for drugs to be included next month, with an updated essential medicines list due in September. The request to consider obesity drugs was submitted by three doctors and a researcher in the United States.

However, some public health experts warn against introducing such medicines too broadly as a solution to a complex condition that is still not completely understood.

Over 650 million adults worldwide are obese, more than triple the rate in 1975, according to the WHO. The majority of obese and overweight people – 70% - live in low- and middle-income countries.